N o b o d y in Particular
by MoonKissedDreamerEureka
Summary: A mysterious blue-eyed boy has haunted both Naminé's unconscious and conscious selves, but when they finally meet, she realizes that this is no fairy tale. And he's certainly no Prince Charming. Troubled forgotten pasts, rivals, misunderstandings, monsters, aliens, supernatural capabilities, espionage, secrets, family, friends, pain, growth, war, love; all while staying...
1. Chapter 1

_ Nobo d y_ in Particular

**AN: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney (That's the Walt's, dummy), Final Fantasy, or any of their characters (I wish). I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs (if any), this story, and three sevenths of my friend's soul. :)

**I:_Pil o t_**

Just about every person in the human race, if not all of them, has a nervous habit-something they do to distract their minds from whatever that's going on causing them discomfort. There are all sorts of them out there just as unique as the people who had developed them. In fact, some of them were downright weird forcing their patrons to put them into the status of a "closet" nervous habit as I call it. It's a real insulting downgrade; I mean, anyone or anything would feel hurt when someone they were so close to was too ashamed to be seen in public with them. Many could agree with those feelings; it reminds me of the day I heard that Pluto had been demoted to a dwarf planet. I was very peeved that day. Pluto was (and still is) my favorite planet. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

My nervous habit was to make lists.

Isn't it something that mothers always say, a quote perhaps? "A clean home is a happy home"? That sounds like it; I'm too lazy to Google it. Isn't it amazing how something like a search engine could become so commonly used to get awarded with the status of verb-ship? Aw status: one of the few things I can honestly say I hate with the very fibers of my being. Things like that really got me. Again, getting off topic (I think I have a problem). Anyway, I'm an artist. When your mind is completely open and set free like a caged bird taking its first flap into the unknown world, is when true inspiration hits you. Like that bird getting shot by redneck hunters.

Oh, where was I?

Mothers; that's right. Well, I feel that wasting time in organizing my thoughts into "What I know" and "What the hell" categories helps occupy my time tremendously. I'm very tidy, you see; a real nit-pick. I wouldn't go and say OCD because I'm also lazy. Although, that just might be me embracing the ways of my country. It's also a comfort to know what exactly it is I know; I've learned in two years of advanced English that if you examine anything for too long that it isn't even the same thing anymore. You've analyzed everything good out of it like a seriously annoying critic pointing out every little fault like they're so damn perfect! So naturally, putting some order to something scary would dull the obvious horror of it all, right? Well, not with this. The only comforting fact I could get out of this was…

It's just a dream.

_One, it's dark._ And I don't mean lights out, "nighty-night" dark. No, it's more like the foggy kind of dark. There's no moon, no stars, and I had a strange feeling that it wasn't even night. The light, the _life,_ had all been sucked away leaving behind a desolate gray world. Oh, what I wouldn't have done for even the littlest speck of paint to magically conjure into my grasp. That blank backdrop of a landscape was too much of a tease to the artist in me.

_Two, I'm all alone._ This place had once been a town. A very sad little town. It might have once been quite homey, cozy even, but something bad had happened. Now, it was just ruins. What once may had been three-story houses only had the very lowest part of the ground floor walls left, the rest blown into crumbs and ashes by whatever had crashed into the town. There was a lot of ash and it was all the same lifeless gray that made this scene the chilling nightmare it was. Yet for some reason, I wanted the whole world to see that obscenity. Everything had turned to ash. **Everything.** The people of the world had the nerve to judge others when one day they'd be no better than the rest of us.

We'd all be particles of ash.

_Three, I want to leave as soon as possible._ That's always the moment when the actual circumstances of the moment finally sink through my thick skull. That's when not even the most extensive lists can stop my eyes from darting wildly around in the gritty air taking in every gruesome aspect of the illusionary world. That's when I noticed the emaciated shapes coated in dust like untouched antiques left forgotten in the passage of time.

That's when I ran…_I ran so far aw a __y._

Oh great, now that song is stuck in my head. Strangely enough, The A Flock of Seagulls hit began playing as the background music like some TV show scene. If I didn't know already that this was a dream (which I did), I certainly knew now.

_I walked along the aven u e._

Too busy focusing on the unimportant details, my natural clumsiness fought threw the walls I'd built against it and caused me to trip on the flat concrete ground below me. Yeah, I know, I've got mad skill to trip on a flat surface. I pushed my hands forward to try to catch myself, but they smashed into something breaking whatever it was into pieces that almost instantaneously disintegrated into even more ashes. Of course, this happened every time. No matter if I tried to take it slow and purposely calculate each step I took, I couldn't avoid the inevitable. The fear would always find a way in, even if it was just the tiniest crack, it could slip through.

Thumping loud and hard, like a base drum, my heart wouldn't stop. It was ridiculous really; I've had this dream so many times now, it was ridiculous (have I said that already?), but the fear never died. This wasn't like a book in English class, it would never get old, the pain and horror would never die…and it would never end. At least, that's what I thought at the time. That's why I couldn't stop my eyes from slowly, very slowly, slug-turtle hybrid slowly, from roaming to the new addition of the ruins.

Bones.

Or corpses to be precise. The skeletons of both man and animal who pointlessly tried to avoid their fate and run from the disaster that struck their little, simple town. Whatever that had happened must had been hot; the skeletons were charred into an unrecognizable state and semi-melted into the ground below. There were so many. Flinching, I clambered pathetically back up to my feet, but my knees wouldn't stop buckling and I was shaking all over. I just kept falling and falling and my desperation to escape only grew and grew. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore; the terror and anger with my own stupid body was overwhelming me and I just stumbled forward in a mix between a run and a crawl. I had to get away. I knew what was coming next.

I had to get out before _he_ showed up.

_And I ran, I ran so far aw a y…_

_ I ran, I ran all night and d a y…_

Naturally, whoever was in charge of dreams or just my dream in particular, maybe that Morpheus guy we learned about, had a fetish for seeing me petrified and sobbing uncontrollably with snot and tears running amok on my already second-rate face. Right on cue, the disoriented smashing of brittle bones by yours truly was suddenly joined by a much more refined clatter. I swear I was having a heart attack or something. My face flushed a shade of red that couldn't have been healthy, but at least the flow of mucous and tangy, salt water had stopped. Although, it was drying as a crusty new layer of skin on my face. My own limbs were aching, probably bleeding, and my breathing was out of control. I knew that the plain white dress I always adorned in the nightmare had to be dirtied and torn in quite revealing areas as if it wasn't skimpy enough.

The regular fall of footsteps continued getting ever closer until it suddenly halted. Silence rung out in the air giving me a false sense of hope that I really shouldn't been feeling. This was all routine and just like I foresaw, black combat boots crashed down on a skull in front of me, shattering it and sending a spray of ancient dust in to my already irritated, bloodshot crystal blue eyes. Reeling back, my elbows met the rough surface painfully most likely tearing flesh and my butt sat quite uncomfortably on what felt like a large femur. I let my flaxen bangs shield my eyes from the one crouching in front of me. Even though I knew it was pointless, I didn't want _him_ to see me as such a wreck…even if he has dozens of times before.

I could feel him creep forward, moving onto my body. Again, I flinched and shivered at the sudden increase in weight, but still stubbornly refused to look at him. People were often telling me I was stubborn, not like a mule but a bull; I was born in April. The only sound that could be heard was the crunching of bone under our combined mass and the gentle swishing of his long black cloak. His covered, muscled arms pushed me down causing the shivers to abruptly stop. His touch was _burning_ and I knew the time had arrived.

_The kind of eyes that hypnotize me through,_

_ Hypnotize me throu g h._

Those eyes-so beautiful, so blue, so utterly trained on my own that paled in comparison.

So pained.

These eyes haunted me for hours on end after the dreams ended and up until the next one.

_I couldn't get aw a y._

I couldn't escape them and I wasn't sure I wanted to. They were the only part of him I ever saw (the cloak came from months of mental decoding) and most certainly the part I was least likely to forget. And I didn't. It was both strange and creepy how deeply they fascinated me, drew me in, and refused to ever let go. A deep and overpowering bright blue embrace like the ocean swallowing me whole. Those orbs sent tingles up my spine and deepened my blush. He was completely on top of me, but I stopped fearing the possibility of being raped a long time ago. Ours noses were just millimeters apart, our mouths centimeters. Wisps of his hot breath bathed my pink lips, something that I'm ashamed to say made me force my thighs together embarrassedly. He was so close that anybody would think erotic things about the situation, but that didn't come. It never came. I could only play my part in destiny's twisted game.

_"W-Who are y-you?" _I breathed, you couldn't ever really call it speaking it was so soft.

He most likely cocked a perfect eyebrow and gave a fraction of one of the mostly dashing smirks. I really hated not seeing all of him, but I would _never_ complain about those eyes. Eyes that darkened even more in despair, just like always, and just like always, my heart cried out for him. Who or what would possibly dare to make this perfect being so sad. They would feel a crazy artist's wrath one day, a freshly-sharpened pencil straight through their widened-in-utter-dread eye.

_"Me?" _he asked in a way that said he knew very well you were talking to him, but he just wanted to tease you. What a cocky bastard_. "Me?" _he repeated as if to remind you where they were in the conversation,

_"Well…I'm Nobody in particular."_

_You're slowly disappearing from my view,_

_ Disappearing from my vi e w._

I

Now normal people wake up from nightmares screaming, but I think we've already cleared up the fact that I'm not normal. My eyes eased opened to the waking world only to shut back down in a whiplash from the irritating morning light. Whoever first concluded that if you hate the light, you're a vampire, obviously lived in a very dark town. Groaning, I rolled away from the repulsive brightness trying to sink into my white, cotton sheets. Dad always said if you believed hard enough, then all your dreams would come true.

My bedroom door was kicked open on about the sixth "let it be Saturday".

"Come on, Nami!" a milky warm voice bellowed, "We've got like…10 minutes to get out of here in order to make it to school on time!" Without opening my eyes, I already knew the identity of the speaker and how could I not? Standing in my doorway was no other than my dear best friend and adopted sister, Jasmine "Jaz" Agrabah. Her silky ebony hair fell down her back in a waterfall only interrupted by the turquoise scrunchie holding it up in a perfectly centered ponytail and her matching headband. Her skin shone a rich cocoa brown and deep chocolate eyes glowed darkly through the shadows of long, black arches of eyelashes. Jaz was already dressed in their school's, The Radiant Garden Academy, uniform-a starch-white dress shirt, a light blue-and-white plaid skirt, a matching tie, navy knee socks, and freshly polished (most likely done by the maids) black Mary Janes. She stylized the drab uniform with large golden hoop earrings and a golden locket around her thin neck in the shape of a cat's head. She loved cats.

Her hands were still on her hips waiting for an answer from the drowsy blonde. This is what she got. "Uuuugh."

The exotic beauty rolled her eyes at the new morning ritual of her dear friend. Normally, the situation was reversed and performed at six o'clock in the morning, but ever since those dreams had been coming more and more often, the fair-haired girl had found her nights ending all too soon. After Jasmine announced her departure, I let out a sigh. _Five more minutes, I'll only sleep for five more minutes,_ I told myself, but as soon as I let my eyes close off reality again, it felt like it was time to open them almost instantly. If that did anything, it only made my insomnia more prominent. Dragging yet another moan out, I painfully separated myself from the suddenly amazing feeling sheets and slumped down on the perfectly white carpet leaning onto my bed for support.

My hazy gaze grazed over my room and the rest of the house as I went through my morning tasks like a death march. My room and just about everything in it was stark white: my queen-size canopy bed, the bedside table next to it, the dresser pushed up to the left wall, the vanity mirror against the wall across from my bed, all the doors, all the curtains, and every other piece of furniture but the thin, round rug under the post of my bed. The ceiling was also painted a light blue with a portrait of simple clouds, but I couldn't stare at it for long; they made me even sleepier. In fact, every inch of the physical building of their grandeur mansion was made of pristine white marble trimmed with gold leaf and ice cream-like gold roofs reminding Father of his homeland.

Finishing up in the bathroom, I tumbled and twisted halfheartedly into my own uniform. It was the smallest size they had, but even that hung off my pathetically thin, flat chested frame, more like sacks than clothes. In recent weeks, my mind had been exhausted enough to see myself as a nearly invisible line from the side like that old singer cartoon with the tear-drop shaped head. You know who I'm taking about, right?

Downstairs, almost the whole family was waiting for me with a sight that tied me down to consciousness. The chefs had been outdoing themselves since I've developed insomnia, serving only foods that even I wouldn't choose sleep over. On the plate sat at my seat were four golden-brown pancakes, three five-inch sausages, plain scramble eggs, and pre-buttered toast spread with grape jelly. I certainly didn't eat how I looked that was for sure. Sliding my socked feet lazily across the slick tile floor of the dining room, I promptly took my place and dowsed all my food, but the toast in maple syrup. Don't worry, it's light.

Soft chuckling came from the head seat to my right. There was a young man with all the same features as Jaz-dark skin, long midnight locks, and dark brown eyes well the shade of the coffee he was sipping- dressed nonchalant in white pajama pants with yellow clouds and brown tightening string, a purple robe, and burgundy nightcap. Kneeling on the table completely out of place in the high-end home, was a little monkey like you'd see dancing for change with a tin cup wearing matching outfit in miniature minus the pants. The little ape, Abu, chattered merrily while taking huge chomps out of various colorful citrus fruits. His master and Jasmine and mines elder brother, Aladdin Agrabah, placed down his dark drink still chuckling as his adopted sister continued to stuff her face very uncharacteristically.

He chuckled, "For someone who really knows how to pack it away, you sure need to gain a pound or eight." He bit uninterestedly at a strip of bacon and continued to watch the flaxen hair girl pig out. I spat some unintelligible words at the man spewing chewed food on the mahogany table and threatening him with a real frightening slice of limp toast. "Aw geez," he continued to mock complain, "Now the sugar's already gone to your blonde head." This comment got a real nasty response, a sausage pointed from my light blue eyes to his heavily contrasting dark ones sending a _very_ clear message. That only served to send Aladdin into a bout of real laughter joined by a leaping Abu.

"Now, now," cheerful giggle interrupted the sibling teasing, "Aladdin, boy-o, you shouldn't play with poor Naminé so much. She's got it rough enough lately." Sultan Agrabah was the one who had spoken from the head seat at my left and was, of course, my adopted father. The small, rotund man picked up another biscuit from his heavily boosted chair with the littlest of plump fingers. Though not the most attractive man with overgrown white beard-mustache combo and obviously dyed dark brown eyebrows, he was absolutely lovely and I adored him dearly. He took me in after…well, whatever happened to my real parents. Did I ever wonder about them?

Nope.

I gulped down my food in a hurry successfully nearing death a total of six times in two minutes. "Thank you-" I tried to tell Father, but was rudely ripped out of my chair before I could. I turned my head with an angry pout on my face to find a just as pissed Jasmine.

"Come on, Nami," she cried frustrated, "We're really going to be late, now!" To back up her statement, she pointed to her gleaming Rolex watch showing the time to be 8:08 am. Pale orbs widened in alarm, an "eep!" escaped my light pink lips as I rushed to grab my schoolbag, my art portfolio, and all the textbooks I would need that fateful day. Together, Jaz and I ran out to the family's awaiting limo and heaved simultaneous sighs of relief as it began the 10 minute drive to RGA.

I

"Oh come on, Naminé darling, you know you want to."

I couldn't help, but chuckle darkly at the utterly ridiculous notion. Marluxia Farron, pink-haired, sexist, possibly a transvestite Marluxia Farron, just couldn't take a hint. Here we were over three hours since the happenings of the morn and the day had only decayed into an even more despicable one thanks to Pinkie leaning in too close on my right. The freak had been after me since our ill-fated meeting back in seventh grade and has refused to back off ever since. His "claim" to me has scared off all other suitors, especially the ones I actually took interest in, and was acting like he owned me or something. Apparently, he had connections with the military so the story goes, but I really couldn't care less. This lame-o was the bane of my already second-rate existence.

It was currently lunch time and Jaz and I had taken up our regular eating spot on the lawn outside our next class in the art department. Said Mr. Farron didn't waste any time in ruining our day with his posse from the tennis team. A whole pack of trannies. Pinkie had his chin rested on my shoulder with what he most likely thought was a seductive look on his face, but really more closely resembled a chimp (minus the brains). His skinny goons had us surrounded.

I sighed again ringing a hand through my flaxen tresses, "Look, Marluxia, I'm really not in the mood to politely turn you down today so if you don't want a scene occurring I suggest you move on to a different lamb." _Finally_, I thought exasperated with the impossibly persistent teen. I couldn't stand him on a regular basis, but the lack of sleep was pushing me into a whole new shade of red that had rarely been breached before.

He scoffed, "You say that now, but I can tell that you're finally starting to come around." I snorted at his arrogance, _As if, bucko!_ It wasn't like him to quit so early, but he was very far from being a fool; he could tell his blondie had gotten a bit more bitchier lately and he wasn't about to be the one she finally snapped at with those manicured nails. The nuisances left the premises acting as cool as ever allowing for the sisters to eat their lunch in piece and discuss aimless gossip around the campus instead before the bell tolled for the end of their lunch period.

We entered Mrs. Potts art class not even caring that there plenty time to spare and immediately began working on our individual projects. For Jaz, this meant continuing to paint the clay sculpture of a Bengal tiger she made and for me, this meant-daydreaming in my chair.

Hey! Don't look at me like that; I don't really have a choice in the matter. As you might have noticed I've been a little preoccupied and let's just say the muse of my masterpiece isn't making things easy, either. If you haven't figured it out by now, the focus of my painting is no other than my dream boy. Around an agonizing blank spot was the monochrome landscape of my nightmares: bombed buildings, skeletons, and all. The sky, though clouded by dust in ash, gave off the gradient of a forever twilight. My body gave a spastic shiver at my subconscious's word choice; the imagery rubbing at something buried deep in the back of my memories and with it came a condensed, searing burning from within my cranium. I groaned rubbing at my temples trying to ease the pain. It was getting worse; the first time I had felt it was the first time Pinkie tried to come on to me physically, the next was when I was just too lazy to get up and reach the TV remote. I got it, but still don't remember ever getting up or anyone being around to help me. Strange.

Some time during my intense inner dwelling the bell had rung. When I finally came to, Jaz and Mrs. Potts were the only ones left, the former waving a sea foam colored, manicured hand across my face. I gave her a weak smile to reassure her I was ok though even I was starting to worry. The burning had started out as just a minor buzz through my brainwaves and had gradually increased to the point of causing headaches at its worst. Just now it had felt like a tiny, boiling sun in my head's axis waiting impatiently to go supernova. I hoped it wasn't anything serious; I might need to schedule a doctor's appointment to at least get some pain meds or something.

I

Suppressing another whimper of pain, I ground my nails into the white wooden sides of my full-body mirror ruining my new light green paint job in the process. A squeal escaped my clenched teeth breaking my vow of silence as I was constricted by cruel elastic and soft fabric.

You're probably wondering how the situation had changed so quickly, right? Well, here's the short version: brilliant me had completely forgotten(or just ignored) the fact that today's date was none other than October 31st. The holiday more commonly known as Halloween had come from having my absolute adoration back during my trick-or-treating days to becoming the most heinous day of my teenage existence.

The Radiant Garden Academy held an annual "All Hallows' Eve" celebration for its student body-basically a big costume bash. Since, as I had previously stated, I had no love for the day anymore, I always let Jaz do her thing whenever the time came up, but I don't think she ever noticed. She has now. Currently, my _ex_-best friend was tying in place the vilest torture device ever to be created by out fellow man, a corset.

It was forest green and grudgingly went nicely with the short lime dress underneath it. The dress had a sweetheart neckline dipping lower than I like and a wavy hem. The whole reason for the torture device was that the back was equipped with a set of battery-operated fairy wings that shed glitter with every flutter. They were fortunately turned off and I was glad because I was sparkly enough as it was. Spray glittered had been plastered to every inch of my pale, revealed form making me sicker every minute. _So much skin,_ I thought, _Ugh, as if I'm not green enough as it is…_

"Oh no," Jaz chided, "No getting sick in this beauty; you'll never meet anyone good pinned as 'Tinker Puke'." Yeah, I was supposed to be Tinker Bell, a very slutty Tinker Bell. Her signature slippers-turned-stilettos were waiting for me beside my bedroom door where I wish I could just leave the little death traps. I could never walk in hills and still can't well to this day.

"Good," I muttered bitterly, "That'll teach you to turn your sister into a whore…" She rolled her eye. No, I said that right. _Eye_. A black leather eye patch shielded the other one matching her tricorne hat, belt, and knee high, heeled boots. A billowy, white, cotton cropped top with ruffled cuffs and collar held loosely to her form and a red sash sat lazily under the belt atop her black skinny jeans. A fencing sword, little gold hoop earring, and fake hook-hand completed her tricked out Captain Hook getup.

"Arg," she teased, "Ya' best be shuttin' that purty lil' mouth of ya's before I force ye fair damsel to walk the plank." She pointed her hook "threateningly" at me and scrunched up her face messing up her one good eye.

I brought a hand to my forehead dramatically and smirked fearlessly. "I do not fear you, Hook," I said trying to imitate an innocent English maiden's tone, "I _believe_." We shared a good laugh at our ludicrously and finally got ready to face my doom.

I

I had been on the planning committee for the dance (yet another reason for me to NOT forget about it) and had an inkling of what to expect, but everything is always thrown out the window when it comes to the finished product, that's why I don't show my artwork 'til it's done.

Fairy lights of purple, orange, and electric yellow were hung in gracing arches like dive bombers from the ceiling and dark purple and black streamers on the wall gave the illusions of a shadowy forest setting the mood just right. Jack-o-lantern balloons were scattered across the floor and virtual bats, spiders, ghosts, black cats, and other fowl creatures lurked about. Tablecloth made to be cobwebs was strewn across the stage, where the band _Disneyland_ played out the chords of "Dance, Dance", and atop the snack tables. A giant skull was flipped over to be the punch bowl(probably already spiked) and there was an assortment of festive treats to accompany it. Although, my eyes were glued to the satisfying display of my hard work, the male population's was glued to us.

Guys openly ogled us as Jaz dragged me through the crown smiling sexily back at each flushing face and glared at those who dared turned their heads to her blond bestie. When I finally realized the attention hog I had suddenly become, I became especially grateful to a band of giants babies that jostled around us towards the bathroom (_maybe to change themselves_) blocking off the demeaning, horny looks of hormonal juveniles. Gosh, do I have a vocabulary.

"Dance, Dance" played out and was replaced by a different song I didn't recognize and was followed by more and more as I just tuned them out. Though I had worked diligently to make this night special for my classmates, I had never really wanted to come myself. Parties were not my scene and there were just too many things to worry about. I swayed absentmindedly to whatever was playing listing out all the things that could go wrong in a situation like this to calm myself when number four on the list snuck up behind me and pulled me to his chest. Yeah, only number four.

"Hello, beautiful," Marluxia attempted to charm me, "Don't you just look ravishing…good enough to eat, really." The last line was whispered huskily into my ear and it also fit. Someone (*cough*Jaz*cough) must have leaked our costume choices out because he was dressed in his own fashionable restyling of Tick-Tock the crocodile. His awful, tight lips were pressed to the shell of my ear sending a disgusted shiver down my spine all the way to the tips of my toes. The blistering heat came back to my brain awakening a headache like no other. _This is bad_, I stated the obvious. Pinkie had me pinned up and was taking us to the secluded balcony off of one wall. The dance was being held in a classy three-star hotel just down the street from the main school building and was often rented out for such occasions since the hotel had a larger stage and auditorium. As he closed (and most likely locked) the balcony doors, the burning little sun finally seemed to have reached the end of its lifetime because for the first time, I could feel the fire leak out of its condensed form and spread-not to the rest of my head, but down the spinal chords in my neck.

"Now then," he hissed, "Where did we leave off again, Love?" He stepped closer to me taking his sweet time believing that nothing could get in his way now. He was wrong. Every inch that disappeared between myself and him pushed the warmth through my veins overpowering my very being. I felt hot all over on the inside, but not a single bead of sweat showed up on my skin. That's when I realized it wasn't just heat…it was _light_ (creating heat).

_A beam of light comes shining down on you,_

_ Shining down on y o u._

I felt light brimming inside me ready to shine through like in a bad TV-made singer's song. He was standing right in front of me now, smirking in victory.

Something snapped inside of me, the light still circulating through my body. I never truly delved into my real feelings towards this jackass. Sure, I've called him a loser, moron, idiot, Pinkie, fag, tranny, and plenty other colorful titles, but no; that wasn't enough. I suddenly realized the volume of my sheer _hate_ for Marluxia was more than just a word you'd throw around when you were mad; it was real, angry, raging _loathing_ far beyond my innocent, naïve years.

He raised a hand to touch me, where doesn't matter, he would _never_ touch me again. "Don't you dare," I hissed, putting venom that I never knew hid inside my soul. He snorted at my "cute" resistance ignoring every negative sign I sent his way. He was so confident…and that was his downfall.

The very littlest touch of his crass fingertips to the baby soft, peachy skin of my revealed shoulder was what finally broke through my walls. The light took full advantage of the first crack and exploded out of me. The sun rushed forward and split igniting my eyes with intense heat. I could make out their blue glow on my cheekbones from my peripheral vision. The light surged forward in an invisible forced that smashed brutally into the pink-haired tennis player. His fairly handsome face contorted as a strange feeling washed over him and he was jerked back so violently, he got whiplash. It wasn't the force itself that got him; it was the crash through the glass balcony doors and final impact with the opposing wall on the opposite side of the room. The room fell deafly silent as the bricks crumpled onto his limp, crooked form.

The initial collision with the doors had backlash some of the invisible light force along with large chunks of glass breaking into the linoleum of the balcony and the suddenly paper thin skin of the young girl who had released them. The broken angel was sent tumbling backwards both from the sudden massive blood loss and the extreme pain throbbing from within her skull. I could almost _feel_ the coma coming on if not worse. I coughed spitting up a splutter of blood before finally losing that comforting feeling of ground beneath my feet.

I fell.

_Aurora borealis comes in view;_

_ Aurora comes in vi e w._

Just as I thought the ground that had dropped would catch me again, I was met with a different embrace. This one was warm, strong, and…muscular. My eyes never closed, mostly because they really couldn't see anything anymore, but even in the state I was in, I could never miss it.

Those ethereal blue eyes.

_The kind of eyes that hypnotize me through,_

_ Hypnotize me throu g h._

_I couldn't get away…_

**Yay, Naminé meets the boy of her dreams, but is he really her dream guy? Are you smart enough to realize who this guy is? Is Pinkie dead? How will Jaz react? What happens now? Coke or Pepsi? Answer my questions in cute little reviews, please. **

**Note: I do not own the song "I Ran (So Far Away)"; it is property of A Flock of Seagulls and their people.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome (there's a lot) mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story.

**II: Dreams Don't Come True…**

**N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e_s_ D_o_**

_Hm-hm-hm-hahmmm, hm-hm-hm-h m…_

_ I walked along the aven u e…_

_ I never thought I'd meet a girl like y o u…_

You know, this really was a great song, very catchy.

_With auburn hair and tawny ey e s_

Make that golden hair and cobalt eyes-Wait! Where did I get _golden_? Memories wormed their way back to the surface, bad memories. I forced my eyes together tighter to make them go back down in their hole where they belonged.

"_And I ran, I ran so far aw a y_," without my knowing the namesake chorus lines played out my blush lips. The song had been stuck in my head for so long thanks to the dreams that I must know it by heart now. I could almost here the strumming of the accompaniment being played on a guitar of sorts. Encouraged, I continued to belch out the song's lyrics in a murmur.

Eventually, it came to a close and I was prepared to delve back into the dark abyss of unconsciousness when-

"Wow, girl, you've got chops."

My eyes flew open and stared unbelievingly at the source of the compliment. _Oh great, another dream_, I thought bitterly about the figure before me. He sat lazily strumming the source of the music I now know hadn't been of my own imagining. It was painted a pretty indigo, bit was a very odd shape that only a mother could love. Enter said mother.

The boy stared entranced at the instrument with aqua-colored eyes clouded with pure love. This should be easy considering they seem to be in the same boat of WTF. The guitarist was tall and slim wearing a dark blue sweater that hung loosely on his frame, a black choker, and bottoms that were both sparkly silver jeans and converse-like shoes of the same material that laced all the way up to his bony hips (**Look it up**). If that wasn't enough, his dirty blonde hair was shaved off on the sides leaving some sort of a mullet/mohawk combination. His ears were also pierced several times.

"Of course," he finally broke the long-lasting silence and pushed the fingers of his right hand against his chest, "it's not as good as _my_ golden pipes."

I flinched at the word "golden" successfully ending my dying fish impersonation. After plucking a few more chords, he finally lifted his gaze (if a bit unwillingly) to his company only to find quite a bizarre sight. "Why are you pinching yourself?" his blank face showed his complete puzzlement.

"I'm trying to wake up before Lady Gaga comes in to join you and that guitar of yours," I answered as if it wasn't obvious. Once I had given myself a throbbing patch of red on my arm, I was forced to face the truth.

_One, this is _NOT_ a dream._

Slumping back in defeat, I realized I was actually _stuck_ with this kook (who btw, was mumbling something about how his beloved was a _si_tar, not a guitar. _My bad_-enter sarcastic jazz hands) and began surveying for any means of escape.

I was in a stark white room(_Nami like_) which I guessed to be some kind of hospital room judging by all the befitting equipment: hospital beds (including one I am currently laying on), rings of white curtains, metal bedside tables holding tools I'd rather not mention, and monitors resembling Karen from _SpongeBob SquarePants._ But if this guy was supposed to be the nurse, I'd like to speak to the man in charge.

Right on cue, the door on the wall so far way in the spacious room I couldn't see it, slid open mechanically and the "tap-tap" of shoes hitting linoleum approached my bed. Another man had shown up, one obviously older than the boy(who appeared around my age) and I, but not by much. He was adorned in a white lab coat and, had blue eyes and feathery white-blonde hair in a stylishly messy fashion. There seemed to be a lot of Arians here; maybe I'd been kidnapped my the reassembled Nazis to be forced to join their ranks! Neah, I was probably just in the regular, run-of-the-mill, local hospital after my fall from the balcony. What _did_ happen that night?

I groaned as the headache returned and raised a hand to soothe my forehead, but someone beat me to it. The pain instantly washed away so I didn't mind. This left me able to recall with ease...

I wish the pain was back.

I sat numbly as the world continued moving around me. "Demyx, why are you here?" the unfamiliar voice of the doctor questioned the strange boy from before. He (the doctor) had a really weird accent. "Look at ya', causing headaches with that damn guitar of yours."

"It's a _si_tar," this Demyx whined for the second time today.

_Name: Demyx_

_Age: 17_

_Number IX, The Melodious Nocturne, Songbird, Dem-Dem, Demy, Dumb-Dumb, this could go on for a while…_

_Rating: Seven fuzzy bunnies and a bunch of baby ducks_

"Well for your sake, I hope it's a fiddle," the doctor continued to berate, "'cause the only place your playing that infernal thing is on the ROOF!"

Demyx pouted, "Geez, Donald, take a pill. She's been out for like two days so I thought some entertainment would lure her back to the real world, sue me for CARING!" He yelled and waved his arms dramatically as he left the room in a huff.

_Name: Dr. Donald_

_Age: None of ya' damn business_

_Donald "Duck", Doc, Uncle Donald, The Cruel Angel_

_Rating: Scrooge_

When the door slammed back shut, I was shocked out of my stupor. "T-T-Two d-days?" I squeaked pathetically.

The doctor's, Donald, icy gaze landed on me and I shrunk into my sheets a little. I had always thought it was just people being paranoid when they were afraid of going to the doctors, but this guy might have just changed my mind. He gave a little huff of his own and started moving around the space between my bed and the chair where Demyx had been sitting. Periodically, he looked back at the clipboard in his hand, thumbing through pages and marking things down. His face remained completely neutral throughout the whole process. I tried once to get a look at whatever he was studying, but one look from those chilling orbs shot me back down.

Just as I had assured myself he was going to practically ignore my existence, he finally answered my question, "Yes two days. The backlash and just the activation of your long overdue gift,or should I say Blessing, alone caused quite a shock to your system. The glass shards have been removed from your person and have already healed nicely meaning you are coming along extremely well, better than expected in fact. It must be because your power has been dormant for so long that now that it is free, it's speeding up the process of making your body a more appropriate living space."

Well, I didn't have anything to say about that, but…this doc is a quack. _Gifts_? _Blessings?_ _Power_? What was he talking about? I just fell off the balcony right- No sooner than I thought that sentence, I started going back in time in my head. I _hadn't_ just fallen off, I'd knocked myself off and blown Marluxia clean through a glass door and smashing into a wall. Though, I still regretted nothing about him, I had to admit that wasn't normal. I had felt…_power_ful,_gift_ed,don't know about blessed. Something had taken over me and made me feel stronger than I'd ever had.

And I couldn't say I hadn't liked it…but there were other matters to deal with.

"So, Dr. Donald, when is it…that I can go home," I inquired praying that my voice hadn't sounded as weak as I thought it had after my whole mental power tirade.

His face relaxed into an uninterested thinking face and he hummed lightly tapping his chin with his pen, "You want to go back?" His tone gave away that he knew more than what he was saying literally, but just as I thought he was going to hold out on me like I had deduced earlier, he enlightened me. Pushing some things aside on the stand, he seemingly tapped the surface for no reason until the wall in front of my bed began flickering.

I jumped in surprise and stared at the metal stand confusedly, watching as with Dr. Donald's taps little squares lit up colorfully on the unassuming surface and caused the screen to react. I quickly realized it was a remote and that the wall was a TV. I processed all of this long before the doctor had finished setting up the screen which both intrigued and worried me. It was like in _Twilight_ when after Bella became a vampire she could think quicker than a normal human. Yeah, OK, I read _and_ saw the movies so sue me, but I was far more concerned about my "not normal human" connection.

Dr. Donald finally found the channel he was looking for. It was a news station and as I saw the little rotating HB News symbol rotating in the lower right-hand corner, I realized that it was none other than the local news channel in my hometown, Hollow Bastion. _Good, at least they didn't take me away from home so maybe I can get-_

"Now we continue the latest breaking news," the familiar Asian reporter, Eraqus Enix, enunciated like all those TV folk, "Last weekend, a dreadful event unfolded at the annual Radiant Garden Academy Halloween dance." I froze. "It seems a troubled student lost control and blasted her completely unsuspecting boyfriend, one young Marluxia Farron, through the glass doors of a balcony and into the opposing wall with some kind of weapon. Mr. Farron was immediately rushed to the hospital and his current health status is unknown. The weapon used to do this to Mr. Farron has still not been found, but his family, supported by the police, has put up quite an impressive reward for anyone with information on its whereabouts, its supplier, and how it came into the hands of a 16-year-old girl."

_What? That bastard's still alive? Kidding. But at least they don't know the truth of what happened, I'd never be able to show my face again if people knew I was some sort of mutant-WAIT. Hold the phone; _who's_ my boyfriend? And he totally had it coming. People need to get their-_

"In accordance, said 16-year-old, Miss Naminé Agrabah, is still at large. Any information on the location of this individual is to be reported immediately. She is considered highly dangerous and mentally unstable. If found, do not attempt to apprehend; immediately alert the authorities. The family has pressed charges and the girl is to be considered a wanted criminal. Press tried to get a word from family, friends, and teachers, but either they did not wish to comment or passionately rebuked all statements reported on Miss Agrabah. These opinions will not be taken into account as they are obviously biased and there is too much evidence against Miss Agrabah for them to be true. In other breaking news, the local cat lady's, Ms. Eri's, home burned down today and in a desperate bit to escape, all 50 of her black-and-white cats jumped out the topmost window into the neighboring tree where they are all still currently stuck-"

My palm crashed down wildly on the stand to turn off the TV, but it didn't work. Not giving Dr. Donald a chance to do it properly, I grabbed up the stand and through it at the wall in a complete rage. It smashed into the plaster where it remained imbedded into a fairly large sized crater. Hm, maybe I was unstable.

I leaped to my feet standing on the sheets and gripped painfully at my hair shedding burning tears that could rival the state I normally get in my reoccurring nightmares. My dinner plate glassy blue eyes darted around the room in a crazed frenzy until shifting to the doctor where they widened even more infuriated. He. Was. Writing. This DOWN?

I snarled and, completely deranged at that point, launched myself at the nodding, relaxed man feeling like a puma. He barely dodged my attack, but I was back on him too quickly, caterwauling like there was no tomorrow.

And there wasn't.

His clipboard and pen clattered to the ground as he caught my wrists before my manicured nails could tear into him like the claws I wished they were. Squirming violently to escape, my screams rose in volume and shrill-ness, but the doctor remained calm (if sweating) throughout the situation. At least, he did at first.

Through the dizzying ire, I could feel the light surging again and dimly made out the short lighting up of my eyes probably making them look even more terrifying. Dr. Donald gulped and watched now panicked as things began shaking throughout the room: beds, tables, chairs, cups, scalpels, curtain rings, you name it. As I continued to fight him, getting more amped up every second, the items steadily rose from their resting places and began floating precariously in the air. Things swirled and soon the two were enveloped in a typhoon of chaos.

"Help!" the doctor finally cried as things steadily got farther out of hand and the girl's screams grew to frightening hysterics. You could hear stomping head towards the room and a hand forced the door when it didn't open fast enough for the person's liking.

In stormed a large cloaked figure who took in the situation calmly. "Don't just stand there!" Donald shouted, his hair whipping into his icy eyes from the wind stirred up, "Restrain her!"

The hooded one gave no sign of confirmation and simply stood there. Suddenly, there was a swishing sound and something chomped down on my wrists. Frenzied by the strange attack, I went completely ballistic and thrashed uncontrollably just wanting to destroy until my heart's content. Black tentacles had slithered out of the man's (?) back and their tips pulled apart to reveal red mouths and jagged teeth along the torn seams. Those were the things that clamped down onto my wrists, ankles, thighs, and shoulders. Their black fangs pierced my skin further as they forced my struggling form back on the bed from wince I sprang.

Now that I was successfully contained by the still impassive mystery person, Dr. Donald let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and wiped some sweat from his brow. Fingers laced in his disheveled snowy locks, he dug in his pocket and pulled out what looked like a hot glue gun, but with a giant needle instead of a nozzle. He stalked up to me sure I was contained and punctured my neck. He squeezed, releasing whatever its contents were into my bloodstream.

Instantly, my body froze from the intrusion, but slowly relaxed and became limp as the tranquilizer worked its way through my body. My tongue lulled out of my mouth, I drooled most unbecomingly, and my pupils drifted in different directions. My breathing dulled at an alarming rate that made me concerned they'd terminated me, but there was little I could do as the world turned black…

II II II II II II II II II II II II II

{A _f_e_w _m_i_n_u_t_e_s _a_g_o_}

"Ha ha, can't beat this."

**Crash! Boom! Zap! Kachow!**

Many animated noises came out of another wall screen though this one took up the whole wall. It was in another completely white room, but that's how every room in the building was. There were couches facing the screen at angels, a love seat to the right, and lazy boy to the left, also all white. A large, you guessed it, _white_ coffee table sat in front of the couches and currently held a PS3, multiple game cases, and a bunch of junk food, opened and unopened.

On the couch stood three energetic teenage boys all fully absorbed in their game and moving their bodies with the actions of the game like they were in it. All had spiky hair, but varied in brunette, dirty blonde, and golden.

The dirty blonde was the musician from earlier, Demyx, but the other two were new faces. The brunette had the wildest hair by far with gravity-defying chocolate spikes, rich tan skin, and bright, cheery sky blue eyes. He wore a black jacket and shorts set with blue shorts under the other ones, and a red-and-blue shirt with a pocket on the front. It had lots of yellow straps and gray and white accents. His fingerless gloves and shoes matched nicely.

The other blonde had a much more orderly and handsome style to his golden spikes and fair skin sprinkle with soft freckles around his eyes of an alluring sea blue. His outfit was even more intricate with half white, half black short-sleeve jacket with a red collar over a pale striped vest OVER a black muscle shirt, faded green and cream pants with black and eggshell hems, shoes of two shades of blue with a red stripe and gold accents, and a checkered wristband.

The three continued to play their game jostling each other to throw off their game, and dishing out trash talk like they were doing something important. Meanwhile, three more teenagers entered the scene. This time there were two girls in the group, a redhead and a raven-haired. The redhead, dressed in pink and with the darkest blue eyes (indigo really) yet, looked at the three gamers unimpressed, pouting with her balled fists on her hips. The raven-haired girl was shorter and smiled softly at them with a roll of her electric blue eyes (seriously, so many freakin' blue eyes). The sole boy had silky silver tresses and aquamarine orbs that gave nothing away about how he felt about the bouncy, smaller teens. The crafted muscles in his arms flexed as he crossed them over his 6-pack abs.

"Don't you three have lives?" the redhead questioned, slightly pouting her red-painted lower lip. The fair-haired cutie rolled his eyes at her and was probably about to retort when they started hearing screaming.

The silverhead boy held a hand up to his ear lightly. "Geez guys," he groaned, "turn that down a bit."

The three gaming boys glanced at each other until the brunette paused the game. When the screaming just didn't continue, but get louder instead of stopping the three newest members to the party became alarmed. "That's not the game," mumbled the black haired girl and she quickly sprinted across the room inhumanly fast (but not vampire fast thankfully) and stared down the opposing white hallway (do you get that EVERYTHING'S white there).

The insane screaming progressed still and the rest of them quickly followed after their friend down the hall. As they went farther, they eventually turned a corner and faced the door leading to the infirmary. No sooner, the screams abruptly stopped. A bit disturbed by the sudden change of events, they approached the door cautiously. As if forgetting it was automatic, when the sensors picked up their presence and the door opened to let them in, all, but the muscular, pale-haired Adonis (yeah, I'm really going into this description shit) jumped in fright.

Peering around the frame, large, innocent blue eyes looked in carefully to find Donald and a cloaked figure only recognizable by a fellow member catching their breath. Donald looked just as much of a mess as the room which was trashed and had the sharp medical utensils lodged in the wall along with a metal stand. The chocolate-haired boy jogged up to his brother in the cloak. Now next to him, he could faintly hear his brother's deep voice muttering, "She clawed my tentacles."

Blinking in confusion, he didn't notice Demyx, the redhead, and his best friend enter behind him and stare around the room surprised until their wandering gazes landed on the crumpled form on the bed.

"Donald! I leave you alone for half an hour and you sick this beast on the poor girl," the dirty blonde berated the older man. The said "beast" growled at him causing him to "nonchalantly" slip behind the built teen for protection.

"Oh, I did nothing of the sort, you twit," Donald snarled back, "The girl simply flipped after she found out what happened to her." This silenced the room. None of them would question what went on in the room after hearing that. After all, at some point in their young lives, they all went through similar experiences. No one knew just how cruel the world and human race was like they did…because they were no longer a part of either. Haven't been for a very long time.

Outside, the other blonde and girl remained, clearly putting the pieces together on their own and it's not like they couldn't hear the Doc from there with their hearing. The girl remained stony face like her much larger companion with blue-green gaze, but the cherubic-faced blonde pouted slightly, feeling for the girl he'd yet to lay eyes on. Though distracted, their superior senses wouldn't allow for them to miss the latest addition to the gathering. Another cloak figure had seemingly appeared out of thin air (though they knew better) and leaned casually against the doorway making the sensors keep the door open.

He was smaller than the other cloaked figure and fit the size of the blonde boy next to him perfectly. One of a metal-tipped pulls attached to his hood was twirling around his finger lazily and his hooded head was tilted lightly in the direction of the bed where our heroine laid unconscious.

The midnight-haired girl visibly perked up at the unknown one's appearance and smiled truly at him. "Roxas, what are you doing here?" she asked genuinely. He didn't answer her, but with as long as they've known each other, it didn't deter her. "You just came back from a mission. To pick up _her_, right?" She looked back at the girl for a moment noticing her original companion was standing uncharacteristically stoic by her side. Her gaze hardened with a foreign emotion. "I hope she didn't give you as much trouble as she did Donald and Vanitas. Who do you think she is?"

_Name: Roxas_

_Age: 16_

_Number XIII, The Key of Destiny, Roxy, Rox, Big Brother, Bro_

_Rating: DOUBLE MIDDLE FINGERS!_

The hood jerked up a minute distance giving the first sign that the figure was even listening. Almost luminous cobalt blue eyes blazed through the otherwise darkness of the hood and remained locked on the pale, sad form of Naminé. The final question of the girl had brought back memories he'd tried to force away, memories of a certain recurring dream he dared not bring into the world through mentioning. His cold, scrutinizing gaze roamed her shape one last time before revolving around hurriedly and walking back from wince he came. His dark, husky voice hung in the air with a foreshadowing of future devastation.

"She's nobody, nobody in p_a_r_t_i_c_u_l_a_r_."

**This took longer than expected so the rest I was going to put in this chapter will just have to wait 'til the next. All well. :P Anywho, Roxas finally shows up and obviously this isn't the same group of guys we're used to in the games. They're better. Sorry for late updating,look in other stories for reason,I'm tired of repeating it.**

**Thanks to . . for following! Roxas chibi for you! X3**

**R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story.

**AN II:** This story was inspired by Maisuki-chan's _Correspondence with a Demon_ and Gundam 00.

**AN III:** Lastly, I hope the new summary better explains what this is about and gets more people's attention.

**III: A _Z_e_r_o**

In hindsight, I might have overreacted just the _tiniest_ bit.

_What?! No, I think I really went overboard a little. I know, I know, you all might find it hard to believe, but I might just be in the wrong this time around. Thank you,thank you,for your full support of my sanity, but let's face the facts._

I'm a mess.

The drug ran its way through my systems slowly or at least that's how it felt to me. It was a very groggy experience. Whatever that junk was,it was some powerful stuff, I'll tell you that. Whether it was from the juice or my own overactive imagination, I spent my coma time in a rainbow, candy land with an anthropomorphic mouse, duck(who sounded strangley just like the doctor), and dog. There were some giant keys involved, canary-ostrich hybrids, and an evil looking queen that resembled my great-aunt Susan. It was kind of fun until the bitch kidnapped my blue-eyed boy (apparently, he's a "prince of hearts" or something) and even when I kicked her sorry ass, I still lost him. My own frustrated dream wailing is what finally brought me out of unconsciousness.

When I awoke once again to the blinding white, my eyes squinted from the harsh appeared I'd been out for awhile. _I might have to reconsider changing my favorite_ _color,_ I thought. White had always held the coveted spot of my favorite color for its lack of everything, but unmatchable number of possibilities. It was the color of dreams. Now it was the color of Hell, my own personal hell. This place, where my world finally crumbled and fell from the cracks long since growing in its dark recesses. Maybe I should change it to blue; it fit me perfectly now.

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The infirmary staid empty and disgustingly white for many more days;I stopped counting after five, but at least a week has passed since I resurfaced into the world of the living. How do I know? I know because I've staid in that room, in that bed, in that pure misery, for that entire time. I haven't moved, I haven't spoken, and I've most certainly not made a list. What was there to know; I was slowly fading away into nothing.

People came and went; that doctor that I attacked (_Sorry, dude_) checked on me everyday, but he was wary of me and brought the big cloaked guy who restrained me, with him each time. He never said anything, either of them, but most prominently the unknown one. I only noticed him on the first day, but after that, he might as well have been a speck on the wall for all I cared. I was dead to the world. However, I did take in on the fact that he came dressed casually one day:black wife beater and grey sweatpants, must've come from a workout. Unruly midnight spikes, deeply tan skin, and feral gold eyes were his true appearance.

_I miss the cloak already._

Although, he did unknowingly comfort me by showing I wasn't the only freak around.

Demyx visited as well. He played his sitar for me, probably hoping it would bring the same response out of me as it did when I first blacked out. It didn't. It was after him, though, that I think my physical self really died.I managed to stop blinking and my vision became unfocused and fuzzy. I liked it as it helped make the world seem nonexistent. Next, I blocked out the sounds and desensitized my nose. Yes, I had successfully escaped hell and I was perfectly fine like that. Happy? Of course not, but I'd given up on happiness by that point. Even more days passed,nearly blissfully,once that was accomplished. At one point, I wondered how I hadn't died, truly escaped, by that point, but then I realized…

Maybe I was dead.

A smile popped into my head, but didn't make it to my actual lips(Who knows, perhaps my nerve system had shut down as well). The idea of death truly captivated me at that point; it had become very tempting…

My short state of suicidal thinking was just that, short; logic very quickly convinced me not to go down that road. For one thing, to kill myself would mean making contact with my physical self once more and then, no matter how short, I'd still be brought back to hell for a moment to accomplish the deed. Longer, if the people who kept me prisoner bothered to intervene. Plus, who knew where I'd end up after that; Heaven, _real_ Hell, Nirvana, a second life, or perhaps even the dead, destroyed world of my nightmares. It was around the time of that last thought that even my consciousness found refuge from the horrors of reality…

III III III III III III III III III III III III III

Naturally, I woke up in the very place I thought of last…or _near_ it.

The first thing I noticed about the dream was, much to my shock and horror, that it was no longer the same dream. It started with me sitting on hard, rough stone just as gray as the town it was in. I was somewhere high up. How did I know this?-because out before me stretched the ruins of the lost city. So far away, it all looked like heaps of ashes (_See, what did I tell you_), but the sky was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, dream realm and real.

Time had progressed since the original and, the dust and grime had cleared from the air allowing the sky to shine through. It was because of this that the most beautiful sunset painted the desolate world. Furious reds, majestic purples, blush pinks, burning oranges, glistening ambers, pure golds, all was melted onto the sky and, dripped onto the landscape and myself. It was so breathtaking; I thought I could really stay there, in that moment, that nightmare, for all eternity. Screw reality, screw life, screw the _after_life; if that was my personal hell, this was my personal heaven.

I don't know if it was because of the fact it was a dream or that was just how it naturally was, but the beauty never went away or faltered. This could really be mine forever. Eventually, feeling began to seep back into my physical self, but I did little about it. Whether from my stubbornness or the sheer fact that I was stiffer than a board, I refused to stop my awestruck gazing. If I moved, acknowledged that I was alive and had another place to be, then this could all shatter and I'd wake up like I normally did. That couldn't happen, it just couldn't.

I think I'd really break.

In the end,it was the other presence that made the difference. As I began to feel again, I picked up on the fact that I wasn't alone in this suddenly transformed world. In fact, they were sitting right next to me. I know, very rude, but in my defense, I've been a little more than spacey lately.

Now normally, I would ignore the person, whoever they were, and continue to marvel this masterpiece, but this was different. There was only ever one other person in this world. The person who haunted my thoughts after I left this place. The person who took my breath away. The person I dreamed of as my prince.

My blue-eyed boy.

So, despite both my body and my mind's protests, my heart forced me to look away from the colors and towards the only shadow. I could hear the cracking of my bones, straining against the sudden movement after so long without use. Oh, how I hated that sound. My breath caught; the blue-eyed boy's hood was down. It was just like the lyrics I'd made up in my sing-along with Demyx. Windswept spikes of pure golden dust in a swirling manor to the right, a warm coloration to his skin, sharp features; he was like the very sun itself. The sun of my life.

Oh, but then he _turned_…and I was incinerated by his light; I'd gotten too close to the sun, stared too long. He was perfection, inhuman-_god_like perfection. Those eyes were still as amazing as ever-the bluest, blue, deep as the ocean, churning with dark secrets and hidden evils. I was probably drooling, I hope I was; this boy, this _tortured soul_, needed to know just how…_wow_ he was. I could be over exaggerating or it could be this world that made him seem this way to me (probably the former), but either way, he was too much for me to handle. It is for those reasons why it was so easy for him to shatter the dream.

"You're pathetic."

Two words. Or is it three? One and a conjunction? It didn't matter because he had broken my trance, just like that, making me the same girl that I used to be. He'd revived me. I blinked away the daze and actually produced my first real working thought in who knows how long. The utter stiffness and achiness of my frail frame became very apparent and my mouth just tasted _awful_; what had those people been doing to me?! Then I suddenly recalled where I was and what brought me out of my stupor. This was another dream that would play out every night, I was the girl cursed to be stuck in that dream, and he was the boy, the spirit, that haunted the empty, destroyed world.

"Wuh~" I stumbled to speak feeling much like a newborn baby, naked and clueless. _Wow, great way to start a conversation, Naminé. What's next, "uh"?_ I shook my head clear of the annoying critic in my head. I really didn' need that at the time.

Back with the blue-eyed boy, his hypnotizing gaze narrowed as his irritated countenance was fully focused on me. I shifted on the ledge of what I now know to be a crumbling clock tower, his boring gaze making me feel uncomfortable. He was completely facing me, putting himself totally all up in my personal space bubble. "Hiding away from the world," he elaborated, "and wallowing in your own self pity because life threw you a particularly painful obstacle. Suck it up!" He was really mad, "You think you're the only one to go through this pain…or anything painful at all?!"

"N-N-No," I stuttered, taken aback by his criticism. Yeah, ok, maybe he had a point (or was totally and completely, 100% correct), but cut me some slack here, "But you don't understand-"

"No," he interrupted. His tone was as hard as his gaze, glowering down on me. It caused me to shrink down into the gray stone. "I understand quite well," he leaned into my slightly cowering form, "better than you realize, but that's just another excuse isn't it?" Standing up abruptly, the blue-eyed boy crossed his arms over his chest, his defined muscles flexing out and causing my cheeks to go rosy. _No! Don't get distracted; he's trying to teach you an important life lesson-oh my God, you can see some _chest! My inner ogling might have continued after that or I could've pulled myself together. Before I could find out, my time ran out.

"Wake up!" he barked, violently jerking me back into focus.

His words brought on a strange reaction: my vision blurred creating a dizzying spell in my head. Before I could do anything about it, the stone beneath my butt seemed to pull itself from under me and I once again found myself plummeting. I really hoped this wouldn't become a habit for me; I know I'm clumsy, but come on! Not to mention, I'm even more confused about this boy than before. First, he's all mysterious and kind of flirtatious, but then he's scolding me like a naughty child. Plus, I never expected him to be able to get this angry with his seemingly "kicked-puppy" persona going on.

A light gasp escaped my paled lips; it was a cold trip going down and my body twisted in the air to force me to watch my demise coming ever closer. I mentally added numbers and dots to what I just thought. Tears sprung to my eyes before being pulled away by the rushing air. I choked down a joyful sob and allowed a crumbly smile to wiggle onto my face.

"I made a list," was all I choked out before intense white light engulfed me, washing out the ground and the dream ruins.

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Donald was writing things down on his clipboard like usual, adding a cheery whistling to his ritual since he was feeling quite at ease, when my body shot up from the bed. "AHHHHH!" he hollered at the sudden movement from the formerly comatose patient. His clipboard and pen clattered to ground as the doctor ditched them to leap behind the protection that was Vanitas.

My head whipped towards them and I cringed as I felt the symptoms of whiplash. My bones cracked for real causing all of us (except the cloaked guy, naturally) to flinch at the ugly sound. Rubbing the soreness from my neck, I peered back into the pondering gazes of the two men. Neither of us said anything for a while, but that was getting me nowhere so I just broke it myself.

"Um…hi?"

_Oh really?! Hi?! God, it seems my brain isn't coming back from vacation anytime soon._ Dr. Donald must've realized how ridiculous he looked hiding behind the larger male and came out of hiding. He coughed awkwardly, picked up his dropped items, and moved over to my bedside. "Well, it's about time you rejoined us, Naminé," he spoke, "We were beginning to play with the idea of terminating you."

He said it so calmly that I figured he had to be kidding so I chuckled weakly. He looked at me still fully serious, silencing my giggles. My face drooped bringing my head down with it and I let him continue with his work, pulling tubes out of my left arm. Once released from me, the dull ache of hunger slowly crept back into me. _So, that's how they were feeding me, and probably why my mouth tastes so foul._ My tongue swiped around my mouth at the thought.

"Well," the doctor huffed, pulling himself up, "That's it for your diagnostics, you seem fine. Just don't leave us again; it was getting annoying." I frown at his backside when he turned to address the cloaked man. "Vanitas, go get that annoyingly bubbly girl. She's the one supposed to deal with her when she finally comes to."

_Name: Vanitas_

_Age: 23_

_Number I, the Masked One, Night Crawler, Van, Vani, Big brother, Bro_

_Rating: I'm too scared to put anything in case it upsets him O_o_

The hood of the cloak was thrown up lazily allowing for the man's, Vanitas, face to be shown. A raven eyebrow quirked up over his amber orb. The corners of his mouth pulled back in a sinister Cheshire grin as he asked, "Which one?" He must have found it funny, but I couldn't suppress an involuntary shiver at the foreign expression on the intimidating man's face. Dr. Donald obviously thought it was funny too because he began guffawing his own laughs sounding much like duck quacks. Really, where is he from?

"Yes, yes, finally someone who knows my pain," he sighed coming down from his high, his free hand placed over his stomach. "I mean the redhead, though," he clarified, "Kairi?"

"I know who ya talkin' about," Vanitas growled suddenly not as friendly with the blonde man. He pushed himself off the hospital bed upon which he sat and landed with "clomp" on the tiled floor as his leather ankle boots met linoleum. Sauntering out of the room, he grumbled, "Always sucking face with my dopey brother…"

Following the dark man with my eyes, I wasn't torn away from the doorway until the doctor prepared to make his leave as well. "U-Um!" I tried to get his attention, but failed miserably. My mouth felt terribly dry and my voice was hoarser than…well, a horse. My hole-free arm was held out to him as if trying to pull him back by force.

Dr. Donald turned around to look at me, a questioning look upon his face. Feeling embarrassed once more, I ducked my head allowing my crow's nest, fair hair to shield my face from prying eyes. Heat radiated from my cheeks, but I tried to gather myself up enough to voice what I wanted to say. "Um, Dr…Donald-"

"Please, just Donald, it's not like anyone else here has the manners to use proper respectful terminology," he interrupted in the same disinterested tone he normally used.

I nodded in acknowledgment, "Ok, well, I wanted to apology for going all…" I didn't know how to exactly put it; I just completely fell apart and let loose everything I was feeling. It was only bad luck that he was in the room with me when I did.

"Stark raving mad? Yes, that was really something, gave Van some real work for once," He waved a hand as if to blow off the whole ordeal, "Don't worry about it. I've dealt with much worse than that. Honestly, just forget about it." I raised an eyebrow at that; if I recall, he seemed quite ready to shit his pants if someone didn't come to his aid soon, but I wouldn't dare say that out loud with the position I was probably already in with these people. I opened my mouth to say more, but was stopped once again.

"Oh. My. Gawd!"

_Name: Kairi_

_Age: 16_

_Number V, Mermaid Princess, Kai_

_Rating: A Paopu Fruit promise_

Both blondes' heads turned back to the doorway, mine with a dumbfound expression, Donald's annoyed. Entering the room could only be the "annoyingly bubbly girl" Donald had spoke of earlier and I had to say, my first impression of her wasn't much better. Curvy, sun-kissed skin and taller than me, she was a redheaded beauty with silky straight tresses slightly longer than a bob. She sported a casually trendy outfit composed of a white tank over a darker one, a pink miniskirt with purple belt, slip-on shoes, purple armband,and yellow wristbands. Her eyes were big and deep blue, bordering on violet, surrounded by long black lashes and a large smile lit up her pretty heart-shaped face.

This girl, Kairi, quickly cleared the space between the door and me with eager skips, and made her way to my side to take my cheek in between her manicured fingers. "Oh, look at you!" she gushed, "The boys all say you're a mess, but you're so pretty!" Flustered from her compliment, I sat there unable to do anything with her shaking my head in her surprisingly strong grasp on my skin. I thought about which one of the boys who've seen me would badmouth me;there would be hell to pay later. Her hand moved to twirl some of my hair, "This needs some serious work, but it's like, one of the loveliest shades of blonde I've ever seen!"

My eyes darted to Donald silently pleading for help, but he was occupied with giving the redhead a nasty stink eye behind her back before leaving. _No, don't abandon me with her!_ Kairi looked back briefly at the retreating doctor, "Oh yeah, run away, Donald, you meanie." You could here said man make an array of disgruntled high-pitched noises (again sounding just like a duck) before the door shut once more.

As soon as the coast was clear, she released me and plopped down on the foot of my bed, laughing a brilliant musical resonance. I stared at her thinking she be mad until she abruptly stopped(scaring me) and turned to look me in the eye. A softer and more normal smile spread her pink glossed lips. She winked and stuck her tongue out quickly, "Sorry about that; probably scared you right?" When I didn't reply, she kept going with a flip of her hair, "That Donald, he thinks all us girls are ditz so I like to play it out whenever he's around. Really, he's just got something stuck deep up his own ass. Maybe _that's_ why he sounds so weird," she whispered leaning into me like we were sharing some major gossip.

I snorted; it was all a show to mess with the doctor. _Clever, girl, clever; maybe I'll like her after all._ Soon, both of us were laughing together like lifelong friends, BFF's dare I say, but my dry throat quickly turned my laughter into a coughing spasm. Kairi attempted to pound it out of my back. She found an empty cup on the metal stand and held it out to me. My gaze flicked from it to her questioningly, but she only smiled deviously. Before my very eyes, the glass filled with water, bottom up. Despite the fact that that was one of the least strange things I've experienced lately, my mouth was agape and my new acquaintance had to place the glass in my hand herself.

"H-How did you-" I tried to ask, but for the third time that day, I was disrupted.

"That's my power; it's called a **Gift**, hydrokinesis," she explained, "You've got one too, but it's a **Blessing**."

I thought about it until the word I was searching for came to mind, "Telekinesis, right? That's how I destroyed the infirmary and attacked Donald and blasted Marluxia through a wall, isn't it?" I stared down at my free hand, open and palm up, as if not recognizing myself anymore. _What am I? What is she? What are all of us? And who's us anyway?_ So many questions yet I was getting so little answers.

The pressure of the redhead's hand on my shoulder brought me to look back at her. There was another soft, comforting smile there, "It's ok, I know you must be very confused, but don't worry,"she pulled the cup out of my feeble grasp and placed it back on the stand to take both of my hands in hers, "You are not a freak, not here, not anywhere. Everything will be explained soon enough."

"Exactly how long is soon enough?" I demanded, feeling like she was only trying to subdue me so I won't go all TK on her…even though I really didn't know how to.

Smiling broader, she bounced off the bed and spun around to face me, her hands clasped behind her back. "As soon as we get you presentable!" she chirped. Brushing up her skirt, she dug around in the pocket of what I could now see as black biker shorts to pull out a pink brush and comb. Kairi maneuvered herself behind me to get to the tangled chaos that must be my hair. She retook the water and urged me to drink it, which I did. She refilled it, and I drank it, and she refilled it, and I only took a few sips the third time around. My throat felt much better and at least there was some kind of flavor to chase that horrible dry taste away.

Now able to talk painlessly, I asked, "Presentable for what?" If there was even the slightest chance that my blue-eyed boy could be here, I had to look good (though I'm sure my dream selves could make anyone look good in comparison *shiver*).

"Oh, to meet all your new comrades," she sang, "Especially the King, he'll inform you on everything you need and want to know. He really is so wonderful; he brought all of us together when the world pushed us off a cliff and gave us all a home." The rhythmic tugging of the brush through my hair was soothing and I couldn't help but close my eyes, feeling at peace. If this would become my new home,then I guess I might as well play nice.

"Hmm," I hummed, "Weird metaphor…and King? This is surely no fairy tale."

She giggled in agreement, "True, but that's just what we call him, out of endearment, you know? He's really just Mickey, Mickey Mouse."

The comb was going through now with admirable strength that I quickly putting together as another part of this puzzle. When that was done, Kairi found a roll of paper towels, wet one with her gift, and cleaned my face before putting some makeup on that came from her other pocket. Standing up, she dusted herself clean of nonexistent dirt and pressed along the invisible touch screen of the metal stand. A mirror materialized out of the wall near my head and pulled out to my side. Wringing through my fixed fair hair, I turned slightly to see my prettied self. It was safe to say I was back to the old Naminé.

"Come on," Kairi called and began to skip merrily out of the room. I got to my feet wobbly and saw in the mirror that someone (hopefully female) had dressed me in a new outfit. It was a beautifully simplistic white dress with lacey trim that rivaled the atrocity that was my Tinkerbell costume in shortness, but I loved it nonetheless. I guess I was keeping my favorite color,after all. Down on the ground, I spotted some cute light blue sandals to go along and slipped them on. After tapping them in place, I followed weakly after the redhead, slowly building strength back up in my legs.

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For the first time, I saw more of the place of which I was being held(though it wasn't much different). It wasn't just the infirmary trying to look more hospital-like; it was the whole damn building that was starch white, every single inch. Kairi led me through many long, identical hallways all of the same blinding color. My eyes even started to hurt from all of it, the only break being from the outer, and some inner, walls which were made of glass to view immaculate gardens. One time I found myself shocked at the appearance of a fountain outside an inner wall. The statues on top of it were sculpted in the exact likeness of the mouse,dog,and duck from my dream. The mouse even held up the weird key-sword, too. There was also a strange symbol printed in black on the walls periodically; it looked like a ninja's shuriken with a mermaid tail to me. In short, it was a very beautiful place, not like home, but I think I could grow to love it, anyway.

It looked like I would have to.

Eventually, the redheaded girl brought us to two different dead-end halls with an elevator between their openings. "Ok, can you wait here while I get something for the meeting?" she asked me. I nodded and hummed my agreement, and she went down the left hall. Both were lined with many doors and I could only assume these were the bedrooms. My eyes followed her until she disappeared into a door with the Roman numeral **V** formed into black metal and bolted to the wood. From what I could see from the outside, the rooms all looked pretty large, rivaling my old one, and most doors were marked with a Roman numeral (I'm guessing the blank ones would be empty). One of the last ones in that hallway though, caught my attention; it had a black **0** on it. I knew from previous history classes that the old world empires didn't believe in the number so I was curious as to why it was there. Before I could do any deep contemplating, Kairi returned and we were off again.

We went back to that elevator and took it to the very top floor, the fourth, before the roof. I jumped a little in shock when the metal doors parted to reveal nothing, but just one long hall. At the end was the biggest pair of double doors I'd ever seen. The wood seemed to be a natural black and had that strange symbol in white to show up on the dark background. The handles were shining silver with intricate, stunning designs melded into their frame. I gulped. Anything behind those things couldn't be good.

Kairi walked me to my apparent doom with a trying air of nonchalance and utter calm. What she had grabbed from her room was a black cloak much like Vanitas's, but more feminine and made to fit her frame. She'd slipped it on and zipped up by the time we reached the entrance to…wherever. The taller girl turned to face me, smiling as I was beginning to find out she always did. "Now don't be nervous," she said, seeing how intimidated I was by just big pieces of wood, "Everything will become clear after the meeting."

Crystal blue eye flicked to her without my head moving; were there going be other people here besides her, this "King Mickey", and me? My gaze went back to the handles at which I was gawking at. I gripped them in my hands, having them feel smaller than ever before, but still faltered in opening the door. Whether I even could move the gigantic things was another question of its own. About to ask Kairi more, I was again shocked to find that she had vanished. _Great, so I'm doing this alone._ How I was still so startled by all the peculiarity of this place, I don't know, but things certainly weren't getting any better. I turned back to the door. They're getting worse.

Sucking in a finalizing breath, I pushed open the large doors with newfound strength only to find myself consumed by white light, much like in my dream. My breath caught, thinking my blue-eyed boy could be waiting on the other side (why I didn't ask Kairi about him, I would later face palm myself for), only to be sorely disappointed by an empty meeting room. Even this place was weird: it was a large and circular room that looked to go on forever both up and appeared to be white thrones hung from walls in a zigzagging pattern. A path with no handholds of any sort lead out precariously to a round platform seeming to float in midair. It had a beautiful design on it with the same reoccurring symbol in the center. I counted the thrones starting with the one directly in front of me and the path, and spun to see all fifteen of them. When I made it back to my starting point, I yelped upon now seeing someone sitting there. The figure was rather small, maybe less than half my size, wearing his/her black cloak in a way to entirely conceal themselves and had it altered with what I could only say were mouse ears. With that last thought, I realized who this person must be.

"K-King Mickey?" I voiced, hoping I was right or didn't upset the stranger if I was wrong. He said nothing; just sat there calmly, hands clasped loosely in his lap. There was something about this man that emanated…_power_. Maybe it was the fact that I knew he did indeed have power, but it seemed like an actually physical force that anyone could pick up on. It had me trapped, my stare locked on the tiny person.

I was none deterred at the amount of time that seemed to pass as we scrutinized one another. "Good evening," he suddenly spoke, his voice sweet and high, childlike, "Yes, Miss Naminé, I am Mickey Mouse. Please, feel no obligation to call me king, young madam. It is just the children joking." My shoulders slumped in relief; Mickey seemed very nice and, I wasn't as tense and nervous as before. "There must be much you wish to inquire about, please, ask away." He waved an arm out as if to usher me on.

Still transfixed on him, I blinked putting my thoughts together. "Well…" _Where are all my questions? I don't know where to start!_ "How 'bout the beginning?" I answered myself more than him.

"Right, right," He agreed, pulling the outstretched arm back and seizing his chin with the other in a thinking manner. "Well then, tell me, Naminé, have you ever heard of the Triple T, or Twilight Town Tragedy?"

A hand mechanically came to play with the end of my pale blonde hair over my right shoulder. "No, sir," I replied respectfully. Truthfully, I was shocked that I didn't know of something considered a tragedy. Maybe it had been before my time.

"Then I must start with that," Mickey said, "You see, young lady, around 11 years ago, a meteor crashed into the small town of Twilight. It was very beautiful little place, a great loss. It had the most amazing everlasting sunsets, hence the name." The sentence struck a chord, could this Twilight Town be the setting of my dreams? "The whole town was obliterated and nearly all the residents died upon impact. Those who didn't later died of radiation poisoning. The authorities tried to get out as many as they could and investigate the scene, but as soon as the people were evacuated, they found that the whole town had up and disappeared. Literally;there was only a giant creator left, like someone had scooped up the landscape and carried it off. I myself was in the area when it occurred and lost many of good friends…and my wife."

"I'm sorry," I muttered and he nodded in thanks.

"Naturally, I was distraught. I knew it was my fault or I could have at least done something about it, but alas, I was too late." I raised an eyebrow at the confession, but remained silent. "It wasn't until a year later, after I'd found some survivors of the town that had been on the outskirts of the meteor's zone at the time, that I came across quite a peculiar presence. A pair of twins had just lost their mother, the last adult survivor of the tragedy, to radiation poisoning. In a blizzard, of all times." He hunched over in _The Thinker's_ pose while continuing, "Now, these two were quite a mind-boggling duo. Even though the meteor had claimed so many lives, _they_ were completely unaffected and healthy. At least, to the naked, untrained eye they were. But I was more informed on the subject than any other. I took the boys in and with help from friends, I discovered the source of the boys' abnormality."

He leaned off his throne, the highest up, his hands gripping the armrests. "Only at the most complex level, the molecular, had they changed, but not exactly for the worse or better. Their very DNA code had been modified by the power of the meteor, transforming the young boys into something completely different. They had powers, a gift and a curse. The difference I would differentiate later: **Curses** physically change something about the user when activated; I've heard you've met Vanitas, he has a curse. **Gifts** are the ones commonly use in the media, the ability to manipulate things already in existence such as Kairi's water manipulation. The last form are **Blessings**, such as your telekinesis and Donald's healing powers. Blessings have no physical form though their affects are very much felt. Each type also has their own glow: curses-red, gifts-green, blessings-blue."

Mickey relaxed back into his seat, "At the time, I couldn't be completely sure of my theories and what I had discovered of the boys. Scattering our numbers, we were able to come across other children like the twins and confirm what we had discovered. The meteor had chosen to spare these young ones, sensing nothing but innocence and purity in their hearts, and gifted them with its power thus changing who they were entirely." I was fully engrossed in his story, though I had to wonder how deep the space rock had to dig to find "innocence" and "purity" in Vanitas's heart. The man just didn't seem to scream those very qualities. "These children, people in genral when you include my comrades, were no longer human. No! They were something greater, far more important in what awaits us in the future. The war soon to be waged for all our very lives. They, _you_, are **Nobodies**, Naminé."

He paused to let the information sink in. _So, I'm not even human anymore, huh? I see, I see…_It was certainly something, I'll give him that. Now, it wasn't that I didn't believe him; I've seen plenty of proof. Actually, I _am_ proof. But, this of all the things, the truth I'd been waiting for, was one of the only things about this place that didn't take me by surprise. It was almost like I had felt it coming all along…or I already knew. He said it was in my DNA now, this power, so maybe the reality had been inside me all this time and it just had to be put into words to be understood. There was one thing that did grab my attention, though. "You say _you_, Mickey, but," I rubbed my neck, sore from looking up for so long, "Where does that put you in all of this?"

The King said nothing immediately. Perhaps, he too was mystified at how well I was taking this all in. It did seem too good to be true after my episode in the infirmary. Patiently waiting to be answered, I said no more. After a nerve-wracking silence, Mickey finally lifted a white-gloved hand to the rim of his hood. He pulled the worn, black leather down revealing what he really looked and I my eyes bugged. Mickey _was_ a child, a little boy, with slick black hair ending under his rather big ears. His skin was peachy with a healthy rose to his baby-fat induced cheeks and he had a little round nose, but what shocked me was none of these features. No, it was his eyes.

They were black.

And I don't mean onyx, dark, dark brown, or anything like that, but completely 100 percent black. No irises. No pupils (probably). Just round expanses of utter darkness, shiny like black pebbles. Little points stuck out from under his upper lip showing he hid needlelike teeth in his mouth, as well. He certainly didn't have to tell anyone he wasn't human.

"From my appearance you can clearly see I am neither human nor Nobody. My species are known as **Heartless**; we are not of your world." He smiled showing those thin, pointy teeth, "Yes, Naminé, even _aliens_ are involved with this. That's where the **Kingdom Heart**, the meteor, originated. My previous home planet, which translates in your language to The End of the World, kept the Kingdom Heart as its most prized possession and leeched off its power to conquer many other worlds into our empire. But the Kingdom Heart must not be used for evil less it be corrupted and die. Sadly, this was something only I, out of my entire species, recognized and thus I released it many of millennia ago not aware of the destruction it would one day bring to my new home, the place I sought refuge in after being exiled for my crime. Now, here we are, after the Kingdom Heart had mysteriously reappeared after its escape, only to crash land on earth and shatter."

"That," he proclaimed louder than his prior speech. Mickey jumped off his throne and landed easily in front of me, allowing my neck to take a break and look down for a change. "Is our purpose. We are **Organization XIII**, Naminé, and we must locate and collect the scattered fragments of the Kingdom Heart before my people invade to reclaim what was lost." He looked deeply into my eyes, his expression extremely serious, "The Heartless will wipe all life from this planet and bring it into their empire as just another trophy of their tirade. We are humanity's only hope and we need you to join us. Lend us your own share of the Kingdom Heart's power and aid us in our mission," dropping his gaze, he stared at his floor, "before it is too late."

Things became very quiet. The situation was very far from anything I could've pictured, absolutely mindboggling. Despite this, I already knew I had to accept. What choice did I have really. There was no other place for me to go now that I was…a _Nobody_. This would be my reason for living for now on and I guess I just had to accept. Of course, saying (or thinking) this couldn't be close to how actually going through with this decision would be like, but like I said.

What choice did I have?

In the time it took me to blink, Mickey had retaken his throne. Once again raising my head to give him my full attention, I found myself in for another shocker. "Ah!" I cried, surprised, and stumbled backwards before falling on my rump. Now _all_ the thrones were occupied, or, all but two. If this was a movie or something, the camera would pan around at this point, to view all the cloaked beings of various sizes. Only two revealed their identities and those two were none other than Kairi and Demyx. Each were smiling at me, being their ever merry selves. Again, I found myself slightly sympathizing with the doctor as my left eye twitched, irritated. _How long have they all been there? Watching me?_ The two empty thrones were lower seated ones signifying that the absent attendees probably weren't higher-ups (literally).

"Naminé," the King's voice brought me back. His gaze was once more boring into me and I found myself pulled back into his black, black eyes. A soft smile shone, befitting his youthful appearance.

"Welcome, Number **Zero**."

_Name: Naminé_

_Age: 16_

_Number Zero, White Witch, Nami, Nams, Nami-chan_

_Rating: Star quality ;)_

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"Stay back and glower in jealousy, unworthy ones," shouted a priest, his staff raised towards the heavens. He had blue hair in a strange hairstyle both long and short.

Police officers stood next to their cruisers, surrounding the man and his followers. The said followers were bowing repeatedly at his feet with similar strange hairstyles and dressed in earthy robes like their leader. The authorities had been called by one of the many onlookers in the large crowd that had gathered at the disturbance. This wasn't the first time Seymour had caused a scene and the police were becoming very frustrated with him. Since all he did was preach about his religion, Yevon, amendment rights stopped them from doing anything about him. He didn't use a megaphone or anything so it was the people's own fault for giving him what he wanted, attention.

"The time of reckoning is upon us," Seymour continued, "Join the Guado and find salvation from the evil Sin!" He turned away and walked back into the church, followed by his supporters, like nothing had ever happened. The people of Kilika, Spira grumbled about the nuisance of those Yevon folk and ignored the radicals as they always did. Eventually, the crowd began to disperse and continue on their ways home as the sun continued to set.

"Damn hippies," one officer spat before climbing into the driver's seat. He started up the car and drove off with the other law enforcers.

Inside the church of Yevon, the Guado milled around excitedly, discussing their faith. One approached their leader who stood hunched over a cover glass box. "Maester, the people do not listen. Is there still hope to free them?"

The maester rubbed the velvet cover as if petting the object. "There is always hope, young one, never forget that. I for one will never abandon the people to the cycle of sorrow." Dramatically, he pulled away the velvet cover, igniting the room in shifting rainbow light. The Guado's attention was immediately drawn to the source of light and they dropped to their knees before it. A mad smile split Seymour's face in half as he gazed amorously at the glowing piece of rock. The light it gave off was an aurora, shifting from green to blue to a soft red to purple and back. "How can I," he continued, "when the Fayth have brought upon us our Savior."

Unbeknownst to the entranced Guado, a hidden cloaked figure watched the whole scene unfold from a safely hidden place up in a tree. The church the Guado had claimed was an old and abandoned stone structure with crumbling walls and little roof left, allowing the spy to look in on them. The only reason the building hadn't been condemned was because it had historical significance and was left to Seymour himself. The Organization member laid down lazily in the tree's branches with their head rested on their folded arms.

"Yes," the unknown member chuckled darkly, "a savior, indeed."

**Finally finished this up for those who read this and the plot gets underway! **

**And yes, the characters do wear various outfits from the video games, but their altered to be more...normal. Also sorry if anyone is OOC, Ihaven't played the FF games. Either way, I'm pooped and hope this…14 and a half page and 7,900-something chapter gets some reviews. R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story. Also, thanks to **White Eclipse of Misfortune, delphigirl689,** **I-Rock-And-You-Know-It **(sorry you got cut off), and **blackizwhite** for Favoriting, Following, or Reviewing. Also thanks to anyone who waited for this. :) You all get Nami chibis!

**IV: Blue to Red…**

**T_h_a_t_'s _H_o_w _S_p_i_l_t _B_l_o_o_d _W_o_r_k_s**

I really need to start thinking more about my actions before I do them. I mean, look at the mess I've gotten myself into now.

After King Mickey withdrew the meeting, many of the members teleported out of there without even acknowledging my existence. Rude, right? Whatever, I'd deal with them later. Those who had stayed left their thrones like normal super-powered beings and jumped to the floor with ease. The king and his followers were already evacuating the room when I was getting myself off the ground. Only Kairi, her ever-present beam, and one other bothered to wait for me. The figure was taller than us girls with a broader built leading me to suspect they was male.

They laughed lightly and pulled back their hood, revealing a chocolate catastrophe on his head. "Ha ha, welcome to the club. I'm Sora, Kairi's one and only fan_tabulous_ boyfriend." When offered a hand, I shook it. It was a firm shake with a lot of bounce to it.

"Fantabulous?" I giggled, my brow quirked.

"Fantabulous," he recited back. I had to laugh at that; it had been too long since there'd been something _to_ laugh about. From his hair to his apparent personality, this boy was quite a card. Already, I was adding another new friend to my list (I was already doing better than middle school), but I had to wonder-could these people really accomplish Mickey's grand plan? They didn't exactly scream "world-saving vigilante" like Batman or someone else cool. My eyes narrowed in thought, _Perhaps there is more to these characters than meets the eye._ All well, only time will tell.

Kairi, Sora, and I finally left the meeting room, but the hall was empty. We entered the elevator and the boy pressed for a floor I had not yet seen (which isn't saying much since I've only been on like three floors…You know what, you don't care about this. Let me stop). The doors slid open to reveal a level that was also all one room. It seemed to be a lounge of sorts with couches, La-Z-Boys, a kitchenette area, coffee tables, and entertainment systems, all in white of course. Those who I assumed were the ones to walk away were hanging around, their cloaks removed. They were, much to my shock, a bunch of teenagers and young adults all around my age. Demyx was seated along with a flaming redhead, a large silver-haired guy, a black-haired pixie, and an African-American girl. Vanitas was reclined, drinking a can of something. Mickey was conversing with Donald and another man-lanky, slouched posture, olive skin tone, and baggy clothes. When we entered though, the universe suddenly orbited me.

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

_Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking!_

"Well, she's definitely not what I expected." The pixie was the first to verbally express her opinion of me. I had been forced into a seat in the middle of the room while all eyes roamed my person, judging me. _Seriously, guys, I don't even know your names yet!_ My gaze flicked fretfully to Mickey's obsidian one over with the adults, observing off to the side, but the pebble-like surfaces gave away no emotions. _You lie, Mouse!_ I didn't feel like an "equal", like I "belonged", at all. I was the new kid.

It felt like f**kin' high school.

The ebony-haired girl, who was shorter than me, was leaned into the muscular, hot one (not exaggerating here). "Definitely nothing much." Her friend remained silent and withdrawn.

I'd decided not to like this girl.

She acted like she had heard of me somewhere and I ended up being just a disappointment to her, a waste of her _precious_ time. Well, hate to break this to ya', sweetheart, but I'm not here for your entertainment. Hey, I think I feel another song coming on.

_I'm not here for your entertainment,_

_You don't want to mess with me tonight._

_Just stop and take a second,_

_I was fine before you walked into my life…_

"She's cute, though," the compliment jarred me from my Pink. It was the male redhead; he was tall and skinny, but his clothes hung tight to his wiry frame. Something unnerving glinted in his jade cat gaze, "Like a bunny rabbit or something…" he licked his lips spread into a Cheshire grin. I blushed at the comment and tucked a flaxen strand behind my ear self-consciously. This caused him to chuckle.

_Name: Axel_

_Age: 20_

_Number VIII, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, Ax, Aku_

_Rating: Sexual predator_

The unfamiliar man with Donald and Mickey chastised him playfully, "Aw shucks, Axel, you've done embarrassed the poor girl. Don't want to get _him_ on ya' now, do ya'?" I could here the black-haired midget growl. The man spoke in a deeper tone than most anyone there and had a southern drawl. I looked at him curiously at who he meant by "him", but their focus was still on me.

"Yeah," Demyx agreed, but with who is a mystery. "She's not scary or evil like Aqua and Kai here, so how in the world did you struggle with her, Vani-OWW!" A can to the head silenced any more from the dirty-blonde.

"Get him, Vani-Nii!" Kairi cheered him on, "No one calls me evil!"

The raven man pulled his gaze from the whining musician to her. "Don't cam Vani, Nii, or _both_, princess," he told her in an irritated fashion. She returned with a tongue stuck out at him childishly. Just as quickly as their attention was on me, I was freed from the spotlight as other things interested them more. My redheaded new friend skipped over to the couch and sat next to me, still pouting over her spout with Vanitas. She gladly informed me on those I didn't know:

Goofy was the man with the king and doctor. He apparently worked as some personal guard to Mickey although he liked to think of himself as something of a knight. The guard wasn't the brightest light bulb, but the extent of his loyalty and heart was a rarity. Goofy's curse is elasticity.

_Name: "Goofy" (real name unknown)_

_Age: 40-somethin'_

_Goofy (we've been over this), Stretch, Sir Knight Goofs-A-Lot (by himself)_

_Rating: Dumber than one hammer_

Axel, as Goofy stated, was a bit older than them, but you'd never guess it by his behavior. He's cocky, crude, immature, perverted, lazy, and devious with a love for everything related to fire (which would explain his gift). Kairi says he's not _that_ bad and is actually a lot of fun, but I'd have to see for myself after that "bunny" comment.

Riku (the hunk) was hers and Sora's childhood friend. He's all "Mr. Cool", but wasn't one of the mean, snobby, jerks that populated my high school. He's blessed with illusion manipulation. I couldn't see why he'd hang out with Xion if he was really such a great guy.

_Name: Riku_

_Age: 17_

_Number IV, Silver Tongue, Ri-kun_

_Rating: *drool*_

Speaking of, _Xion's_ the woman who irked me. Strike that, _girl_ who irked me. She's only 15, 15! Yeah, I am her senior and she has the nerve to disrespect me like this…and don't tell me I'm overreacting! I know overreacting-you have not _seen_ me overreacting. She has umbrakinesis (shadow manipulation for you Latin-impaired individuals). How fitting.

_Name: Xion_

_Age: 15_

_Number X, the Shadow Dancer, Xi, XiXi_

_Rating: Bi-Otch_

Lastly, the littlest of us all was named Clover-14, happy-go-lucky, hyper with moments of maturity, and apparently Demyx's "very, bestest friend". His words, not mine. Her name goes well with her green eyes and chlorokinesis.

_Name: Clover_

_Age: 14_

_Number XII, the Nymph of Blossoming Rage, Tulip, T_

_Rating: A rose…_

I shook my head in disbelief with a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "Who _are_ you people?" I asked no one in particular.

"Consider us your new family," Mickey answered my rhetorical question. Seriously? He's worse than a guidance counselor, this so-called king. His smile was kind and I'm sure he meant what he said, but that couldn't stop a painful sting from piercing my heart. I had already lost my birth family in the Triple T as he informed me and now I had to let go of my adopted family. Sultan had taken a chance with this poor, pitiable orphan girl and now I must have brought him only shame and calamity with the mishap with Marluxia. Aladdin must be out of his mind with worry despite the circumstances, which probably reflected negatively on his monkey. And Jaz, oh Jaz. She just wasn't my best friend, but my sister! We shared everything with each other from her teenage romances to my nightmares and headaches (honestly I don't see what she had to complain about, I'm the one obviously missing out on life). But I'll walk this path alone without her; with the weight of a Nobody's responsibility as mine to bear alone. I had to say good-bye, if only in my heart.

During my inner monologue, I failed to notice Mickey give me and Kairi orders and then, her guide my spacing person from the lounge. When I was coming down from my daydreaming high, I began to realize what was going on. Kairi was taking me back to the floor with the rooms(the third). Then I realized the strange door from before, the only one without a roman numeral, was mine. _They _had _known I was coming_, I wondered, _but…for how long?_

It was safe to say that I was surprised by the appearance of my room; it was, in a word, _perfect_. Like, creepily, perfect. The room itself didn't vary much from the rest of the building being mainly white except for a few touches of light blue. All the necessary furnishings were there along with an intricately-designed vanity mirror I'd probably never use, unlike the book cases and flat screen. However, what really stole my heart was the little art setup.

There was an easel already prepared with a canvas and a whole shelf dedicated to an array of supplies and notebooks. And with the utter blankness of the room, I only assumed I could paint on the walls as well. I immediately went to embrace the items, feeling more at home than ever before. My fingers brushed the smooth, painted wood lovingly and traced the rings holding things. It was as magical as a fairy tale to a little girl to an artist like me, if not more so since it was actually mine. Oh, the many wonderful things I could do with that stuff.

I had to back away before I started drooling and embarrassed myself any more in front of my company. Kairi was watching me like a pleased mother. My attention 'stead went towards one of the two large windows. Walking over to the nearest one, I was able to get a glimpse of the beauty out yonder.

The room had a view of one of the immaculate gardens. The flowers and stone fixtures would be great inspiration. It would change consistently with the seasons creating an eternal muse. The current season of fall displayed before me warm-colored trees, leaves blowing across the ground, seasonal plants, and a honey glint off the fountains' water.

Falling back onto my plush white bed, a dreamy sigh escaped my lips. Kairi giggled, "Like it? Ven worked had to try to get it to be just like a dream." I snorted, _This is very far from _my_ dreams._ A part of me did nag me about how this "Ven" knew what I would want, but I rolled over, face making out with a pillow, to silence my suspicions. If I was to join these people, my fellow Nobodies, I would have to learn to trust them…like "my new family". I snorted again, flaring my nostrils unattractively.

"Try to get some sleep," she continued, "You'll need to be well rested for tomorrow is when the work begins."

Another snort, _E__asier said than done._

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

My new BFF returned in the evening of the next day to get me for lunch. I'd been awake for awhile by then, but I just didn't feel like getting out of bed. After a taste of this magical mouth yesterday, it refused to let me go. But when Kairi arrived and quite literally dragged me to the cafeteria, we had to make a sweet, sorrowful farewell.

Lunch was pleasantly anything I wanted, but I could barely stomach the idea of anything more than soup. However, the cook-a tall, fit African-American woman name Clarabelle, wouldn't have that and piled some meat onto my plate. I barely got a chance to feel queasy before Kairi whisked me away again.

"Where's the fire?" I joked, the usual teasing tone not quite there.

She looked back at me quizzically, "Oh? Sorry, but today marks your first day of training with your blessing."

"Ok…?" I slurred, still not seeing the rush.

Laughing dryly, she looked away. "Sorry again, but you see, your…_trainer_, I guess you could say, isn't exactly the most likeable person." Then she muttered, "I don't even know why he was chosen, Daisy should've been the best choice since she's blessed too and all." I would've asked her more, but my brain was occupied with sending alert signals about the loss of blood flow in the hand she was crushing.

Suddenly, the horrifying image of Vanitas with a whistle around his thick neck and a sweat band entered my mind. The disgusted shivers didn't come until his image morphed into a certain black-haired junior. I'd much rather get bossed around by the imposing man than bow to that shrimp's command. _Hm, probably a first for him_. However, when the two of us finally did get to the training room, my feet came to an immediate halt. Kairi started trying to coax an explanation out of me, but I was blind, deaf, and mute to all but who was in front of me.

He stood, leant against the door to a large closed-off area, looking irritated and slightly bored. The Organization cloak fit him perfectly, just showing the curves of his chest and arm muscles. His eyes were hidden at the moment by the lowest-hanging fringe of his golden spikes, but I knew all too well what they looked like. It was imprinted on my heart, brain, and soul.

My breath caught as my eyes stayed glued to him and I severely hoped the raucous pounding in my ears was my hearts beating sporadically. _Can this…_my inner voice couldn't even phrase the notion at the risk of being crushed if proved false, _Can this really be you?_ I begged him mentally.

While I remained awestruck, Kairi had stepped up to _him_ and the two seemed to be having a heated argument. It was probably about my lateness, but I really couldn't have him mad at me; it was Kairi's fault for letting me sleep in, anyway. She seemed to be losing the fight against the boy's stoic persona. Finally, she gave a dissatisfied huff, a roll of her deep eyes, and conceded, twirling around causing her ruby tresses to float up. I didn't identify the sound of her footfall nearing until the pressure of her manicured hand was on my shoulder, snapping me out of my daze (if only to not be rude like _some_ people).

A sympathetic smile formed on her tilted face. "Good luck with that one," she wished sincerely. Little did either of us know at the time just how much luck I would need.

Freed from my trance, I was assaulted with the realization that I was alone with _him_.

My line of sight moved ever so slowly,as if frightened, to line up with the other blonde. I was sweating out of nervousness and my mouth was dry. I really wanted the first words I say to him in person to be something memorable. Something that would put our love story on track. Taking a deep breath, eyes closed, I was shocked back to find him standing in front of me when they opened. Oceanic eyes glared coldly into my chicory ones, snuffing out all intelligent thought.

"You're. Late," he growled lowly. Oh my God, his _voice_. Even if he was berating me, hearing his dark, velvety voice for the first time through my real ears was a heart-melting,weak-in-the-knees experience. One of many I hoped to come.

The two of us continued to look into each others eyes, like we were having a moment, until I realized he was waiting for some kind of response. _This is it; brain, don't fail me now!_ "H-h-h-hIII!" I squeaked, pitch rising at the end. My cheeks colored to match my friend's hair. _Nooooo! Darn you, brain. Darn you to he~ck._

He blinked, giving away no hints of emotions through his eyes, only his scowl deepening. With a jerk, he walked away grumbling, and flexing and unflexing his fists. I could only gawk as a response to our first real-life meeting. I mean, what the hell?! W-What about the dreams?! Doesn't he know or remember?! The boy didn't seem very impressed with my "dying-fish" impersonation.

A perfectly arched brow rose on his head, "Problem?" He must have taken my silence as a "no". "Good. Well, we should start with seeing what you can do. You can at least _use _your blessing, right?"

I remained silent, irking him and causing him to rumble a low growl. That sound, like an animal's, brought me out of my infuriated, confused inner monologue. I rummaged through my brain to try to remember how I had done it the last two times. But I'd been so emotional, I doubt I was really in control, then. And it was pointless looking at how Vanitas, Donald, and Kairi did it because it was second nature to them by now. So how was I to do it; I couldn't make anymore of a fool of myself in front of _him_.

Breathing slowly, I softened my gaze and tried to find that warm light inside me. I knew it brought me headaches so I returned to searching my brain, picturing a hovering little ball of light. I could almost grasp it with my mind fingers.

I found something to test it on, a wheelie chair pushed under a control panel of buttons and monitors. Not quite sure what to do with the light, I tried "activating" it and found the chair moving to the center of the room. Feeling quite proud of myself, I looked at _him_ waiting for some sort of praise.

He snorted.

"That's all you got?" he spat and snorted again with a roll of those blue eyes. The boy made his way to the control panel, nabbing up the chair as he went, and sat down, leaning back in it lazily. He played with the doo-hickeys, continuing to speak without looking at me, "We're gonna have to start you out on 'Beginner'. God; that's even below Level 1." His long bangs were blown out of those eyes with a puff of air.

Gawking was starting to become my normal reaction to him. He continued to fiddle with the contraption, raising machines and platforms from the floor of what must be their training room. Once done, he sauntered down the stairs to the room, waving me in after him, and I followed mechanically.

He finally faced me, hands in his pockets, once we reached the gadgets he summoned. "I'm going to be attacking you with these so just try not hurt yourself."

I nodded numbly and he pressed a button on a tall, cylindrical machine. It started turning and I had to jump out of the way quickly when a metal disk came flying my way. More came at me and I continued to barely dodge them for at least a good quater hour. I was too focused on tyring not to get hurt like he said to really do anything. Of course, he didn't notice or care. "What are you doing?!" he yelled at me. I spared him a glance allowing a disk to whiz too close to my face and cut a thing red line across my cheek.

_Then_ he chose to pause the machine. He continued, "This exercise is to test your _blessing_ not your reflexes, which, by the way, are shotty at best! You waste too much energy and that reaction time will get you killed in this business!" We stared heatedly at one another, but then he suddenly restarted the exercise and I was back to work. _Ass_.

If this was an anime, a vein would've popped just then. My psychic powers kicked in on full blast, and I was able to take a break and just force the onslaught of disks away with my mind. If I wasn't so peeved at the moment, I probably would be feeling like a frickin' Jedi or something, but no. I was supposed to be learning how to fight without having to get all emotional, but _he _was making that impossible.

The anger started to affect my abilities and I was defending myself with ease. But then, he _had_ to press another stupid, f**king button, upping both the speed and number. I was pushed harder, but still not breaking much of a sweat.

"Naminé!" That was the first time he said my name, but it was all wrong. _So_ wrong. "Don't you get it? 'Nough defense, attack!" He sure was yelling a lot, but he definitely had no reason to be angry. No, that was me.

Seeing red, I psychically gathered up the offending metal circles before launching them back from whence they came. They hit their targets one right after the other, but I had collected one more. Without thinking things through again, I hurtled it at the jackass. Something dark flashed through the air and deflected it, but I was more concerned with him.

He was literally quivering with rage and his eyes, which I previously adored so much, were _actually_ red. Blue blood dripped through his fingers from his fists being balled so tight. "_What_ is wrong with you?" he demanded so evenly I flinched, suddenly fearing him in this state.

But I digress.

"Wrong with _me_? No, what is wrong with _you_?!" I screamed, "Do you have any idea how long I've fantasized about finally meeting my blue-eyed boy and you turn out like this?!" Now, I was shouting with my hands gesturing towards him dramatically. "Or do you just not know what affect you had on me even though I don't even know your stupid name?"

A part of me relaxed when his eyes returned to normal, though they narrowed. "Roxas." _Oh so that's your name, well news-flash! That's not important right now._ "And _that_ doesn't matter; it never did," he looked away from me as if not being able to look at the destroyed, crumbling look on my face. His volume dropped, "You know my name, but that's _all_ you know about me." With finality, he leapt from where he stood and crashed through the large glass window of the control room (_Really? Drama Queen, much?_).

So he did know? In a way, that was the last nail in the coffin of my broken heart. I was numb again. To the world, to my fatigue, to the hot tears streaming down my face, and to Kairi, feet crunching on all the broken glass when my legs finally decided to leave.

I felt another mini coma coming on, but I wouldn't succumb this time. He, _Roxas_, couldn't mean that much to me; I wouldn't let him. It had to be that I was just more wrecked about the whole Nobody change than I originally though. Yeah, that was it.

Although, that didn't stop me from running up and sucker-punching the douche when he randomly walked around a corner, _chatting_ and _laughing_ with some tall and leggy, blue-haired skank. Frankly, it was a very terrible and awkward way to me the Ventus "Ven" I'd heard so much about (and so misfortunately happened to be _his_ (yeah, we're back to that) identical twin brother) and his friend, Aqua, but again,

I digress.

IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV IV

"Really, Mickey, you can't be serious!" Xion yelled. She was standing in front of the mouse king's desk in his office with Goofy looking nervous by Mickey's side. The little leader listened patiently to the young girl's cries, leaning his elbows on the wood with his hands clasped. The subject of the debate paced agitatedly back and forth in front of the door. His fists were clenched again and he mumbled dark words to himself. Roxas's eyes were dyed red once more in his rage, but at least he hadn't gotten to the point of lashing out.

Yet.

His old friend continued on with her argument, "I can understand that we _have_ to accept all members, but why pair _that girl_ up with Roxas?! We've already seen what has happened between the two of them in just one training session; she-_they'll_ screw up the objective if placed together." Though it would have added to her point, the 15-year-old did not want to bring up the two blondes' apparent history as she didn't want to know herself.

Mickey blinked, his expression not changing at all. "First of all," he started, "'That girl', as you so plainly put it, has a name-"

"Naminé," came the grumbled answer from behind them. Unknowingly to them, the raven girl felt another stab to her heart, one of many she had had to suffer through since Roxas carried the girl, so delicately and carefully like _Naminé_ was so _precious_, all those days ago.

"Yes, thank you, Number XIII," the three lower ranking members startled at the use of formal ranking: that meant things were serious. "Now as I was saying, I must disagree with you, Number X. _I_ believe that Numbers XIII and 0 need each other." His eyes narrowed as his eyebrows formed a flat "V", "They can help each other where we have failed. As it has been foreseen," he whispered. Shivers went down the two taller, black-haired figures at their leader's unusual prophetic tone, but before any of them could say anything, a familiar dark flash crashed down onto the king's desk.

As the sawdust cleared, you could see that the desk was demolished, but Mickey stayed literally in the same position as if the desk was still there, completely unfazed. When the air was fully clear, the dark flash was revealed to be a red-black scythe-tail belonging to this sci-fi love story's very own "Prince Charming". The blade was a shiny obsidian that stood scratch-less in the splintered wood.

Roxas was growling at the mouse king infuriated and starting to slip, but quickly withdrew his tail and stormed out before he did something he regretted. His frantic (and slightly frightened) childhood friend chased after him soon after. Mickey sighed, "The work he puts his brother through, I swear…"

"Er-yup!" Goofy agreed, nodding, well, goofily, "Teenagers these here days."

"True, true," his superior yet friend added, "Not only do they make a mess during their plethora of emotional tirades," his eyes darted to the window behind them where something quickly dashed out of sight, "But they also tend to have a nasty habit of eavesdropping."

No longer having any reason to hide, the spying cloaked member teleported into the office, appearing sitting Indian-style in front of the pile of wood chips that used to be the boss's desk. The same unknown member from before whistled, "_Da~mn_, Roxy sure has a clean cut, doesn't he?"

"Please focus, Number XI," said boss complained in his child's voice. His fingers were pinching the bridge of his tiny nose, feeling a headache coming on from all his "children".

"Fine," Number XI whined, seeing that the king's last buttons had already been pushed by the moody Number XIII. Number XI finally peeled back their hood and revealed herself to be a young woman with short, dark hair and similar eyes. A headband kept her bangs out of the way.

_Name: Yuffie_

_Age: 17_

_Number XI, the Ninja Assassin, Yuff, Yuffie the Ninja, Psycho (by most anyone who meets her)_

_Rating: Like a boss_

Yuffie continued, kneeling down to Mickey to try to be as dramatic as Roxas, "Oh sire, Yuffie the Ninja returns with news of a successful mission."

"Oh?" he asked, used to the teen's strange behavior. He had sent Yuffie out on scouting missions on several possible leads to a fragment to the Kingdom Heart, but all had been duds so far. The girl was constantly complaining about the lack of action, but this was her job in Organization XIII. Her power of teleportation could only be so useful once they were able to store her blessing for the others' usage.

He stroked his nonexistent beard on his unnaturally pale baby face, his thoughts still on the two troublesome blondes. Perhaps, _this_ could be just what they needed as well.

**Oh my God, I am so sorry this took this long! There is absolutely no excuse at all; I'm fairly good at time management and still have plenty of time despite being back in school. In fact, I'm taking Creative Writing as an elective this year and we actually have to write outside of class for that so I've been working on this whenever I had time. It's just that it has to be in a notebook and I write _so_ slowly. Wait, that's an excuse.**

**Anyway, more characters are revealed, but I realized I forgot Mickey's "Scott Pilgrim" biography so I'll put it here with Clarabelle's (since she won't have a speaking line till a while).**

_Name: Mickey_

_Age: ?_

_The King, King Mickey, Mickey Mouse, Mouse_

_Rating: Top dog_

_Name: Clarabelle_

_Age: Late thirties_

_Chef Belle, "Purdy Lady" (by Goofy secretly)_

_Rating: Gourmet! (read in French accent)_

**There! Now before I wrap up this ridiculously, unnecessarily long AN, I'd like to ask one-how you all feel about how I'm portraying Mickey. I mean, I know it's off because he's a freakin' Disney character and all cheery, but this is supposed to be realistic. So a cartoon character won't cut, just saying. **

**Two-I've recently read that "wordy" fics tend to ward readers off so if you think I'm writing too much, please tell me and I'll shorten them (successfully quickening my update time) and even possibly go back and edit the earlier chapters or at least put a notice that "shorter chapters are ahead". Really, just drop me a line. You'll get a cyber cookie! And I don't mean the icky ones that are like little viruses. That would be bad.**

**Three-Yeah, I added an Oc, but she's nothing like anyone I know in real life and I promise she won't be annoying and hog real character's time.**

**Swear to update again early next month, R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **GAH! I AM SOOOO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE! Honestly, I have no excuse, it was really just sheer procrastination:my greatest enemy.

**AN II: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story. Thanks to **Namiroku** for faving and **Katerina(Guest)** for reviewing!

**AN III: **Lastly, I probably should have said this before, but I don't own the cover pic. You can find it on Google images (I think it's a tumblr).

**V: Blue-Eyed Boys,**

**_W_h_a_t_c_h_a_ G_o_n_n_a _D_o?**

"You know, I'm not going to let you do this again."

All the redhead got in response was an angry grunt and a shuffling of the mass of blankets on the white bed. Sighing, Kairi ran a perfectly manicured hand through her ruby locks. She may have already grown a fond attachment to their newest member, but the teen was never one for patience.

A scowl marred her pretty face at the thought of what had gotten the blonde girl like this again: all emo and cocooning herself in her linens, probably hoping to come out as some sort of mutant butterfly monster that could rip the jerk to pieces. Hm, or maybe that was _her_ sinister plans. Either way, neither girls were very pleased with a certain Number XIII.

In a way, Kairi blamed herself, or really, she blamed Mickey. Roxas was _so_ far from being a friendly person and had some serious trust issues. And THAT was just the tip of the iceberg representing the deep psychological trauma that the sandy-haired boy had bottled up inside him, or so Donald and Zexion said. It was just ludicrous to have him train Naminé. Honestly, it was hard to believe Roxas could be related to her puppy-like boyfriend or even his own twin brother. Related to Vanitas? Definitely, but not their brothers. Thinking of the other spiky-haired blonde only got Kairi madder.

Ventus was as much his brother's polar opposite as fire and ice-how those, or something similar, weren't their gifts was a mystery.

Ven was caring, considerate, and friendly to just about anyone. Roxas was mean, hostile, and temperamental at best. She couldn't count all the times Ven had to apologize for Roxas's mayhem and moodiness, on her hands even if she had six of them! Such thoughts lead her to less favorable topics (*cough*bugs*cough*) and shook her out of her inner degrading of the problem. She could only deal with one blonde at a time…and she kind of doubted she could handle the other one, anyway.

She grasped the sheets tightly and started a tug-a-war with the wrapped up newbie. "Naminé, I mean it, get out of there before I make you!"

"Grrr," I grumbled through all the white surrounding me. I needed this place. It was the closest I could get to a happy place since my dreams offered no comfort with _his_ face haunting them. For once, all the white of the **Castle That Never Was** was a plus. Now, if only I could get rid of this meddler.

Before I could come up with my own plan, Kairi instigated her own. A scream was pulled from me as my white world suddenly became a wet one. I was forced from my soft bed to the hard, cruel floor. _So we meet again._

Kairi had catapulted me to the ground with a strong torrent of water from her conjoined hands. Now soaked, the sheets stopped being literal safety blankets and were quickly turning into my demise. In school, we'd learned about various forms of torture (_really a very bad idea for depressed,impressionable juveniles,but hey,whatever floats their boat_) including one very much like the situation I was in, but I wondered if Kairi knew that.

I wouldn't be surprised if she did.

Not caring, I started screaming and kicking. When that didn't seem to work fast enough, I activated my blessing and a flash of blue from my eyes later, the wet fabric was flung to the opposite sides of the room. Relieved from my captivity, I rested on the carpet, panting, in damp pjs. I tried to put on the best irritated scowl I could with a flushed face full of hair.

When my pout intensified into what resembled a meme-worthy face, the redhead only burst out laughing harder. I huffed and flicked the fair hair from my eyes, admittedly more dramatically than necessary. Pushing pass the now gasping for breath "friend" of mine, I stomped over to my closet.

With much effort, Kairi managed to regain control of her breathing. "Oh gosh," she wheezed, "Did you see your face just then? Of course you didn't,but boy,was it _fun-nay_." She dragged out the last word to emphasize just how _"funny"_ my face was been.

I wondered how funny it would look from the ceiling.

Noticing my not so cheery mood, Kairi finally let it drop and got back to the whole reason she was here. "So you going out now?" she asked cutefully.

A rude snort was all she was got out of me; I was still miffed from my near death experience.

Suppressing a shiver, I forced the wall of pastel clothing apart. My hands wavered over another white sundress, like the one I had woke up in so long ago, but preferably longer. _Thanks again, Ven_, I thought, wondering if fashion would fall under his "jurisdiction" or whatever.

I pulled it out, but hesitated to put it on. Of course, it had nothing to do with Kairi's presence, but my mind had slipped into that depressed, pessimistic state. When I was down, I got clever and currently, my inner evil genius was speculating the possibility of me falling ill from wearing the wet clothes thus creating a reason for me to avoid Roxas longer. I shivered again, _Ew, I said his name._

"What? Just don't stand there," Kairi spoke up again, "And don't think about getting sick to avoid training either because an impenetrable immune system comes along with the whole Nobody business." _Damn_. "Besides, I'd drag you out of here if I had to."

I sent a glare her way, "Then why didn't you keep up the attack?! It would be easier to drag out my lifeless body."

Her long dark eyelashes fluttered innocently. "Oh, I would _never_ do something like that to you. You're my friend, Nami, and officially part of Organization XIII so I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Uh huh."

"It's true! If I wanted to kill, I would have just drowned you in your sleep!" she exclaimed what she probably thought was a reassuring statement.

Silence.

Coughing and red in the face, Kairi tried to reel back this quickly going out of control conversation. "Okay, maybe that wasn't the best way to word that-"

"You think?!" I interrupted, slightly unnerved that she would even have that planned out.

"Oh hush!" she waved me off, "Seriously, I would never hurt you and neither would anyone else here." I was about to interrupt with a reminder of the one who had _already_ hurt me, but she must have seen it coming. "Do you really want to bring _him_ up?"

_No._

She put her hands triumphantly on her hips, "Thought so. Now what were we even talking about, again?" _Don't remember. Don't remember. Don't remember._ "Oh right, rescuing you from moping land."

_Damn. Again._

Seeing my unconcealed displeasure, Kairi pouted a pink glossed lip, "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm helping you."

"Says the attempted murderer," I mumbled, but her acute hearing was able to pick it up. She didn't bother with a verbal response though, just a roll of her eyes.

_One, Kairi is stubborn_

_Two, Kairi is verbally invincible._

A jolt went through me; I had made a list. It had been a while since I needed the little mental comfort technique and like always, it helped to revitalize me more than any caffeinated or sugary treat could. With the sudden adrenaline boost, I finally took care of my clothing situation. Despite what Kairi said about our superior health, I was getting chilly and didn't really want to risk it.

Once dressed, my eyes looked longingly at my bed. _I could possible make it back…_ Just one step towards it and I was already intercepted. A weight tackled me to the ground. I was alarmed at first until my blue gaze interlocked with a now familiar indigo one.

I groaned.

"Not happening," Kairi deadpanned. We started wrestling to get our ways (_ok, so maybe we're both stubborn_) and somehow found ourselves out in the hallway. Things continued like that for who knows how long before heavy footsteps stopped next to our squabble. Both of us looked up to find a pokerfaced Vanitas. As my stomach sunk with dread, the redhead's leapt for joy. "Vani!" she squealed, a little out of breath from our scuffle.

He scowled menacingly at the pet name.

"Help me force her into the fresh air," she said to him.

My eyes went to him fearfully. _He wouldn't really, right…?_ The man's amber wolf-like gaze glowed with a dark light, betraying only disconcerting emotions. I gulped.

"...I give up."

VVVVVVVVVVVVV

It was a brilliantly sunny evening, creating beautifully blinding scenery to match the brightness of the white building within it. Despite all the fuss I put up about not getting out of bed, I was sorely enjoying my defeat. What, who likes to lose?

"Wow," I breathed. I felt if I spoke too loud it might shatter the dreamlike world around me. Dreamlike. Not a good word to be using right now.

Kairi had taken me to one of the many gardens I had noticed during my early days in the **World That Never Was**. This one was the ground floor, of which I've never seen, and was the largest by far as it had the whole actual ground to spread out on. Naturally, it was even more stunning up close and personal than from a distance. Many, many flowers bloomed everywhere and sweeping willows made for ideal little alcoves for hanging out in the natural beauty. I wasn't a tree-hugger, but as an artist I could recognize true beauty when I saw it.

"This is really…" I started to tell Kairi. We had stopped at a large fountain. The decorating statue displayed a simple yet massive heart with a curling center and little crown.

"Amazing? Breath-taking? Magnificent? Stu~pendous?!" the redhead supplied giddily.

"Yeah," I uttered simply, finding each word to fit.

She giggled. "I like it, too. Of course, I couldn't give you the names of any of these things, but it's definitely pretty. Clover worked hard on it; it's her treasure."

"I can imagine," I said, remembering the little girl who even had plant-colored, green dyed bangs. I kept admiring the wondrous (_how'd she not get that one? come on girl_) landscape and took in deep breaths. The fresh air stung my senses in a good way and helped to clear the mess that had once more become my head. _The things that boy does to me…_

Unsurprisingly, thinking about Roxas dampened my mood. My gaze darted to try to distract myself from going down that harmful path of thinking. A distraction suddenly came to me as my azure orbs spotted something new. Honestly, how I'd missed the darn thing was a mystery. At the edge of the garden, standing very much out of place, was a church. Captivated by the seemingly random structure, I walked over to it.

As I neared it, I noticed three things.

One, though it appeared to be an old building due to its rundown appearance, at further exploration, I found that it had actually been under attack. The pieces of it that remained mostly untouched were still strong, if blackened. The rest seemed to have been blasted in.

_This couldn't be from Twilight Town, could it?_

The idea both awed and frightened me. If the church was indeed from my destroyed hometown, then what on earth would it be doing here? And more importantly, if it was indeed from Twilight Town, what kind of attachments could it possibly have to my forgotten past?

Two, all the flowers planted by the ruin were simple little things coming in white or yellow. They couldn't compare to the rest of the garden, but it was that simplicity that made me pick this place to be my new little corner,per say, away from the world (since we all know my dreams or even my room weren't safe (*cough*meddling friends*cough*)).

Three, that was it.

And no, I'm not trolling you here-I mean that was literally **it**. Immediately after the church, the ground abruptly broke off into a cliff. And it didn't lead to a valley down below, either, oh no; that was probably too _normal_ for the World That Never Was. No.

We were floating in the sky.

_Oh, sweet BABIES-_

My arms immediately flew out to steady myself, though I was never teetering in the first place. Pebbles skidded over the edge and disappeared into the clouds. I started to panic and stumbled backwards into crumbling stone. _Why, oh Jesus, WHY?! They could have an underwater base or a freakin' MOLE kingdom, but no, they gotta be floating in the dang sky._ If you haven't noticed, I don't do well with extreme heights. That balcony at the party was fine, I could survive that fall, but not this. We. Were. Above. The CLOUDS.

Sudden giggling erupted behind me and made me jump in surprise. The edge loomed below me and I ran backwards awkwardly until I could clutch the magically-appearing Kairi for dear life. The giggling grew louder into full on caterwauls. They, whoever they were, just made my kill list. Right under Roxas.

"Oh, so you noticed, huh?" Kairi said nonchalant, peering over the edge with a smile. I stared at her wide-eyed like she was crazy or something. _Clouds!_ She giggled at my face, invoking the unknown peanut gallery to join in.

My head whipped around to catch the perpetrators, but I found nothing and things suddenly hushed.

Narrowing my eyes in suspicion, I finally entered the church and creeped around in search of the gigglers. A muffled sound came from one pillar and I jumped on it. Before I could look, another one came from a broken pew. Skidding to a halt, I headed towards it only to have _another_ sound from the podium. Miffed, I stopped in an outcropping of the plain flowers in the middle of the cracked wood floor. I crossed my arms moodily.

"Ha! Now you're even starting to act like _him_," Kairi mocked. I threw a nasty look over my shoulder, I mean, really? Now?!

This obviously amused her. "Don't start them up again!" I yelled at the laughing girl.

Kairi held her stomach in her fit, "O-Oh, N-Naminé, you're so funny. I haven't laughed so much in a long time, HA!" Just as predicted, the giggling started again. I starting to piece together that it was the sound of mischievous children.

"Happy to amuse," I grumbled sarcastically and waved my hands around, agitated. "Just call me, Nam-chan the Clown."

"Clown!" squealed a little blonde boy, suddenly stepping out from behind the column. He realized he blew his cover and tried to hide, again.

"Hee," Kairi chuckled, "Come on out, boys, the jig is up."

The same boy appeared from behind the podium and shook his head overzealously. "No."

I fixed my gaze on the podium, _Is he a teleporter or something?_ Now knowing his hiding place, I focused my TP on a heavy weight behind the podium. The boy, now faintly glowing light blue, slowly slid out from behind it backwards. Exerting more effort, I found that moving a human was a lot harder than diverting a disk. In fact, seeing his predicament, the kid simply used his own inhuman strength and broke my bind on him.

The little bitch.

The redheaded teen "tsk"ed, "Wow, you do need training, no doubt about that." I huffed, my cheeks pink from embarrassment. It was harder than it looked, ok!

The little boy laughed at me, flushing my cheeks even darker. "That's all you can do?!"

Another one of him stepped out into view from the pew, snickering just as badly. "That was the great blessing we've been hearing so much about?!"

A third revealed himself from the column. "What a joke! I mean, even Huey could break it!"

The first one, "Huey", pouted at his second doppelganger. "What do you mean 'even Huey'? I'm WAY stronger than you, Dewey!"

"Nuh uh," Dewey disagreed.

"Doesn't matter," the other one broke in, "'Cuz I'm the strong_est_, period!"

Out of nowhere, Huey and Dewey jumped at him, "Shut up, Louie!"

_Name(s): Huey, Dewey, and Louie_

_Age(s): 11_

_Huebert, Deuteronomy, Louis (actual names), Various Insults (By Donald)_

_Rating: Triple Threat_

The three tumbled around, getting in a scuffle between what I assumed to be identical triplets, seeming to forget all about little old me. Smirking, I placed my hands on my hips and watched them deviously. My eyes flickered to the random flower patch and I extended my blessing once more. After having it broken, it was a bit of a strain on the old noggin, but at least this was a simple task.

The boys stopped their sibling fighting when it unexpectedly started raining flowers and clumps of dirt.

"Ew!" one said (I lost track of who was who in the fight) and swatted petals out of his feathery fair tresses. They looked like duck down.

"Flowers are for sissies!" another agreed.

The third settled a hard gaze on me, "What was that for?!"

I started laughing, but the children didn't seem to find it as amusing. They stood up simultaneously and I noticed the only difference between them-their clothes: one wore a red shirt, one blue, one green and all wore white shorts.

Alarm gripped my heart as each broke out into small convulsions, seeming to shake or vibrate. Before my very eyes, the three "innocent" kids shifted into a growling wolf, hockey-masked murderer, and his chainsaw. I backed up in fear as they advanced on me.

Just as they looked ready to attack, a woman's voice intervened, "Ok, enough playing around, boys."

My apparent savior was a rather short woman, barely taller than me, wearing a purple sundress and a matching ribbon in her short blonde hair. Her pale blue eyes glittered with mirth as she looked at the boys. They returned to their previous forms at her appearance, saying they were just playing with me. Well, _excuse_ me for not playing with murder weapons when I was their age!

She wagged a finger at them, "Huey, Dewey, Louie, that is no way to treat a new member of the family. I've taught y'all better than this so don't go making me look bad. You here!"

"Yes, Daisy," they grumbled in unison.

_Name: Daisy_

_Age: Mid-to-Late Twenties_

_Daisy Duck, Mrs. Dr. Quack (By Triplets)_

_Rating: Mother Goose_

Rolling her eyes, she somehow managed to flip her short cut. "Whatever, you brats," she told them jokingly. Obviously, they were close; maybe she was their mother. Daisy then acknowledged me, "Oh sweetie, excuse my manners, I'm afraid these little devils be rubbing off on me," she shook my hand, "I'm Daisy and I take care of all of our little ones."

"Naminé," I introduced, "And are there a lot? Little ones that is?"

"Neah, just the triplets and Denzel and Cindy. Cinderella is her full name and Denzel is Sora and Vanitas's youngest brother."

I raised the brow at yet another relation to the spiky-haired boys. Big family. It was then that I noticed the lack of my tour guide. "Where did Kairi go?"

Daisy glanced around, "Oh, she left after getting a text from her boy-toy." She waved the redhead off, "Aw, to be young and in love. Such splendid times." I smiled bitterly at the notion; I hate to say it, but recently _I_ thought that maybe that would be me with…you-know-who. Now, I realized the ridiculousness of high school romances, but wouldn't rain on my friends' parade.

A new voice chimed in, "Oh Daisy, you say it like that wasn't you just a couple years ago." The familiar model figure of Aqua walked in with Ventus. I immediately felt uncomfortable by the other blonde's presence. It wasn't his identical appearance to Roxas anymore, but my own self-made embarrassment by punching the innocent boy in the face. His eye was still slightly bruised despite our speedy healing capabilities and he wouldn't tell Donald on me.

_Name: Aqua_

_Age: 21_

_Aq, Number II, the Tamer of Frozen Hearts, Ice Queen (By Axel)_

_Rating: Model figures (**damn her**)_

_Name: Ventus_

_Age: 16_

_Ven, Venny, Venkens, Blondie, Number VII, the Key of Dreams_

_Rating: Last place_

"Oh, hush, girl," Daisy said, "Like I couldn't say the same thing about you, Miss Forever-21." The two women hugged and I figured they were friends. While my eyes were over in that direction, Ventus caught my attention; he was watching me and smiling. I blushed.

The teenage boy made his way over to me and my face got redder with each foot that disappeared between us. By the time that he was within speaking distance, I must've looked like some tomato-headed monster.

Before he could say anything, I was already bowed down like an Asian fool. "Please forgive me!" I exclaimed, "I had NO idea that Roxas had a twin and I absolutely had no desire to hurt you. Just him."

At first, Ven just stared at me, a bit taken back. Then, out of the blue, the boy burst out laughing, holding his stomach from the joyous pain. It was safe to say I was confused. I mean,someone is apologizing to them and you laugh in their face. That is not very helpful for them.

Another giggle escaped him before he explained himself, "Naminé, you don't have to apologize. I understand." He scratched the back of his head, "Sadly, it's not the first time I've had to pay for my brother's stupidity."

Ven smiled a beautiful smile at me and I returned it, blushing slightly. Ven really was nothing like Roxas; it was just unfortunate they had to share the same face. It would've been _so_ much better if he had turned out to be my dream boy.

_But those aren't the blue eyes I pine for._

My moth twitched. It was true; the whole reasoning behind my foolish infatuation (_Yeah, sadly, it is still stubbornly there_) was my curiosity about the sadness locked away in that boy's heart. I wasn't conceited enough to say that I was a saint, but there was a deep desire within me to try to help Roxas-whether he wanted my help or not.

Sighing, I faced the facts: I would have to make-up with the douche. I can only hope it's not anytime soon-

_~All active members and personnel report to the meeting room at once.~_

Mickey's voice suddenly rang through my head. I held it in fear, "W-What was that?"

Aqua and Daisy had crossed the church over to us unnoticed (well, unnoticed by me anyways). A look of forlorn adorned the bluenette's face. Huey, Dewey, and Louie reclined on a more stable pew, looking bored and unaffected.

Aqua spoke, "The King has summoned us."

"I wonder what for," Ven said. _Was this something unusual?_ "It couldn't have to do with Naminé and I doubt we have yet another new member."

His friend shrugged, "I guess we'll find out when we get there." She glanced at me and laughed at my still stunned expression. "Relax, Naminé, it's just Mickey using his telepathy. The King has many abilities; you'll get used to it."

"For official things like this, you members are required to wear your cloaks," Daisy informed me, "I'll see you guys there!" She ran off, calling to the kids to behave until Denzel and Cindy got there. Ventus and Aqua took that as their cue to teleport out of the church.

Poor me could only look around concernedly. "Wait! I can't teleport!" I got no response, but the triplets' laughter. Ugh.

_Damn, again...Again._

VVVVVVVVVVVVV

Naturally, I was the last one to show up to the meeting. When I finally got the giant double doors to budge, I found all but one throne was sat upon and, Donald, Goofy, Clarabelle, and Daisy were standing around under Mickey's throne.

Blushing madly, I hid my face with my bangs. "Sorry," I mumbled.

My least favorite voiced snniffed at me, "New to the job and already showing up late. My, oh-"

"Xion," Mickey apprehended her. _Yeah, get her, Mouse!_

I glared at the spiteful girl. "Sorry," I repeated, "Not _all_ of us can teleport."

Xion gave a knowing smile, "Actually, only _you_ can't teleport." I paled at the information.

Mickey looked to be about to scold her once more, but another spoke first. "It doesn't matter, Number X. That problem shall soon be dealt with." The one to speak this time was unknown to me as everyone who had met me had their hoods down. He did not. That way, I summaized there were two members I haven't met.

He shifted to look at me (I presumed). "Just be seated."

I nodded slowly; the guy didn't seem very friendly. I made my way to the open throne, which I hope and prayed for the sake of what dignity I had left was mine.

Eyes narrowed in determination, I crouched and sprung for the seat. I missed by at least a full meter, but quickly used my blessing to carry me the rest of the way. Moving a person was still really hard and I hoped no one noticed my little dilemma. Poorly muffled cackling dashed those hopes.

With everyone present, Mickey began the meeting. "You all are probably wondering why I have summoned you here, including the personnel." He clasped his hands, "The first piece of the Kingdom Heart has been located by Number XI." Gasps filled the room along with exclamations of excitement and success.

"So,"Clover wondered,a finger pressed cutely to her lip, "Just how much of a dent would that be?"

"There are 50 pieces in total, if I remember correctly,"he answered. A collective groan pursued. "Oh quiet, it's not that bad. Once we have one piece, we can use it to trace the others. With your abilities and training, this will be a cinch despite the numbers."

"Who's going to be getting it?" Aqua finally asked after the others continued mumbling.

Mickey shifted positions, "I have thought about this carefully and I see it best for retrieval missions to occur in teams of two for the most part. The first pair will be," he paused, measuring how we would react and making me feel a sudden sense of dread, "Numbers 0 and XIII."

Just as the King predicted, they did not take this well. At all.

"WHY?!" Roxas snarled, refusing to look at me. I just noticed that he was in the higher seat to my left.

"Why her?!" Xion added.

"Why them?!" Axel extended,only half-joking.

"But I want to go!" Demyx whined.

"Shut up, ignoramus," the unknown member from before said to him. The dirty blonde raspberried him.

"Guys…" Sora tried to regain order.

"Don't even bother, Sor," Kairi told him.

"You're all _annoying_ me," growled Vanitas. The room quieted at his implied threat.

Mickey coughed, sweating a little, "Thank you, Number I. Now, I can see you all have your own issues with this, but you must understand something." For the first time that I've seen, Mickey took on an angry, intimidating scowl, amplified by his black eyes and protruding fangs. "This is not an option, it is an _order_ and you will all **obey**." No one would dare challenge the mouse king, though Vanitas was looking quite smug with their leader.

"Numbers 0, I, VI, XI and XIII, please report to the Transport Dock with me. Everyone else, dismissed." With those parting words, the king disappeared and the mystery member, Roxas, and Vanitas disappeared with him.

I sighed, thinking I would have to make my own embarrassing way to a place I had no clue how to get to, but soon found that wouldn't be the case. The other unknown member suddenly materialized behind me, grabbed my arm before I could even "eep!", and teleported me away.

Teleporting was weird. It was like being swallowed by an orb of darkness (**wink, wink, nudge, nudge**) and then being engulfed by light once you arrived at your destination. All of this seemed to occur in seconds. Coming out of the dark, bright spots dotted my vision and I shielded my wounded orbs with an arm. Once things cleared, I found myself in another large room (but still smaller than the massive meeting room) filled with even more contraptions than the training room.

Monitors, screens, tables, and control panels went all around the wall of the round space. Printers and machines whirred in every corner giving data I hadn't a prayer of understanding. The most noticeable thing, though, was a giant tube going through the middle of the room. It had its own separate controls and was where the others were gathered around. For whatever reason, Goofy was there too.

I finally turned to face my captor only to meet a short-haired Asian girl.

She showed me a big grin. "Sorry 'bout that, but we couldn't have you taking your sweet time, again." She winked to show me she was kidding, "BTW, teleporting is actually my blessing, but we Nobodies can infuse our powers into objects. That's how Ven did your room and fixes the things his brother and Vani break," Vanitas sensed the accursed pet name and growled at the girl. She continued as if he didn't exist, "The kid's got an amazing thing, the power of _creation_, like God or something!"

The girl released me and took a step away before something occurred to her. She did an about-face, "Oh yeah, silly me, I'm Yuffie-Number XI. Pleasure to me you, Nams." Yuffie followed up with a mock salute and skipped away. What a strange girl.

I liked her...but Nams? Why.

Once gathered, the last unknown member removed his hood revealing a pale emo face, long steely bangs covering one surprisingly bright blue eye. He was pretty short, just passing over me and probably around the same height as Kairi and Yuffie. However, this last boy, Number VI I suppose, seemed to carry an air of a higher knowledge that was more heavily expressed through the lab coat he wore over his Organization cloak.

Yuffie leaned over to whisper in my ear, "That's Zexion. He's like, the biggest bookworm _EVER_. So he knows what he's doing despite his age."

I blinked, raising a brow, "How old is he?"

"17," she said and took notice of my poorly masked shock, "Yeah, I know, some of us are just unlucky enough to be born vertically challenged." Both of us looked at ourselves, knowing the feeling. _Stupid tall people._ "Anyway, we better start listening."

_Name: I just told you this_

_Age: Again, look it up, lazy bums_

_Zex, Zexy, Emo Child, Number VI, the Cloaked Schemer, Boy Genius, Lawn Gnome (By Axel)_

_Rating: Zexy and he knows it!_ ;P

Four tentacles crawled out of Vanitas's back and,well, _plugged_ themselves into a panal. Green lines lit up along the tentacles (**think Ben10's Uprgrade**) and he gained control of the technology, bringing up a map on the tube's smooth surface.

"This is the location of the fragment-The District of Spira." Zexion indicated a spiral-looking district of the Land of Enix, our country. The map zoomed in at the mentioning of the district's name and an exact point lit up blue. "It is inside an old building called the Church of Yevon; it's run by the Guado."

"The who-do?" Roxas asked, still sounding irritated.

The gothic boy rolled his visible eye, "Another screwy religion. Don't worry about it." Vanitas then brought up other pages, like computer browsers, listing information on various people. "The blue-haired man is Seymour Guado," Zexion snorted before anyone could comment, "Yeah, he named his followers after himself. According to our surveillances, he also lives within the church so he'll be the main obstacle. Of course, it shouldn't be anything we can't handle. You must simply know all the facts."

With the way Zexion spoke, you'd think his power was being psychic-he seemed to know all the right things to say before it was necessary to say them. Anyway, he continued explaining the others, "These are the local authorities. Chief Auron, Deputy Kimahri, and other officers. Memorize their faces in case they try to intervene in the matter themselves."

Following directions, I took in all the data upon first glance. Being a Nobody really did have perks; too bad I don't have school anymore, it'd be a cinch now.

Zexion faced the crowd, "Just get it and get out. It's not quite time to reveal ourselves to the public. You leave in two weeks time." Since we were the ones going on the mission, Roxas and I nodded.

Mickey adjourned the meeting, now that we were aware of what to do,and everyone left. Before vanishing, Vanitas bumped Roxas roughly, growling something in his ear, and Yuffie tossed something my way. I fumbled to catch it. When I did get a firm hold on it, I found that it was an earring shaped suspiciously like the heart-statue from the big garden.

"That's your own personal teleporter and communicator with those of us who _don't_ have telepathy and other seemingly infinite powers," she told me, winking at her suggestive statement. I giggled, waving at her as she too vanished.

Putting the thing on, I turned around and jumped to see that _he_ was there.

Roxas stood still as stone, his cloak unzipped revealing a black,white,and red themed outfit with his fists shoved deeply into his pockets. His scowl was burning into my skin, forcing me to look away quickly blushing.

"What do _you_ want?" I muttered, cursing how pathetic I sounded.

He snorted, deepening his scowl, "I don't _want_ anything."

I sighed. _Calm yourself, Naminé. You decided to make peace with this jackass,remember? You got to be the bigger person and ignore his bad attitude as best you can._ Yeah, that sounded nice enough in my head. _Oh, who am I kidding? I can't be the bigger person, I'm a midget remem-_

"Hey."

My head whipped up at the boy. I certainly didn't expect_ him_ to restart the conversation. Roxas wore an uncomfortable look on his mug and his cheeks had a rosy tinge to them. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he looked nervous.

"Hey," he repeated, "Look…_Naminé_," he found it difficult to say my name, apparently. "I'm…*mumble*."

My eyes fluttered. "What?" I asked confusedly.

His cheeks reddened-oh yeah baby, he's actually getting flustered!

"I said…*louder mumble*."

"I'm sorry, you'll have to actually speak _English_ for me to understand you. This isn't a Charlie Brown cartoon so I won't miraculously know what you're saying."

The blonde boy growled at me and I stepped back. For a minute, I thought I had gone too far with my snarky remarks (_what can I say? he brings the worse out in me_), but then he clenched his eyes tight, clenching his temple with one hand, and calmed back down.

"Look girl, I said…I'm _sorry_, OK?!" he exclaimed suddenly, all traces of cute flustering replaced with his regular persona.

It was safe to I was right before-this boy does always leave me gawking. "You're sorry?" I gasped, not sure if I was hallucinating or not.

"Yeah," he spat, "Is that so hard to believe?!"

"No, no…" I mumbled, not wanting to get into another argument with him. "I just…ok, I'm sorry, too." Kicking the floor nervously, I peeked up at him through my bangs, "We got off on the wrong foot and I…disrespected you. You are my senior and teacher and whatnot so I should have acted more professional with you."

My heart and face fell with my next words. "I guess the dreams just meant more to me than it did to you," I whispered sadly.

A moment of silence passed between us and suddenly feeling EXTREMELY embarrassed, I quickly glanced up to see his reaction only to catch something much more pleasing. His spiky bangs flew back over his face before I could marvel at his full-out blushing any more. I smiled on the inside at the small accomplishment.

Roxas stomped passed me angry again, which was still an improvement from our last parting. When the door started closing, he stopped it with one hand and spared me one last look. In that instant, I caught a glimmer of my blue-eyed boy, bringing my breathing to a halt.

"We restart training at noon tomorrow so don't be late!" he ordered, returning to normal. Then, he was gone.

_Really, what _AM _I to do with that boy?_

**DONE! TTvTT Ugh, again, sorry for being so late. The first mission was supposed to be in this too, but it got too long so see it next time. I feel like I write dialogue bad and clump things together weirdly, what do you think?R&R!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: **I do NOT own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else awesome mentioned in the following chapter. I am nothing more than a fan and only have claim to my OCs and this story. Also, I listened to "Cry Little Sister" from the _Lost Boys_ soundtrack while writing this. Love it!

Thanks to Hirasettie for faving and HerBreadBoyPN, Forget-Me-Not XIII, and iiasha for following!

**AN II:** WARNING-Some kinda gory scenes and maybe more cussing than normal ahead.-WARNING

**VI: The First Mission**

**T**_**h**_**e **_**F**_**i**_**r**_**s**_**t**_** P**_**i**_**e**_**c**_**e **_**o**_**f **_**m**_**y **_**H**_**e**_**a**_**r**_**t**_

You know, by now you'd think I would've realized that these people are insane, but no~o. I had to be old, clueless Naminé and think I'd get some beauty sleep.

Nope.

A boot was placed to my backside and ungracefully shoved me the floor. _So we meet again._

I pushed myself up with a groan, disoriented from both the rude awakening and the grogginess remaining from my slumber. This, however, did not deter me from whipping my head around to face the perpetrator.

_Of course._ "What do you want, Roxas?" I moaned, still sleepy. It was amazing how I could've come so quickly from cringing at just the thought of him to saying his name with ease…eh, I don't have the energy to hate him right now.

"Don't complain; I told you training would start today."

"But, it's only like," I looked around for my alarm clock. My eyes widened when I saw exactly what time it was. "Five o'clock in the morning?!"

"Of course," he said, as if it was completely normal to wake up that early. _Like freakin' farmers. No wait, I don't even think they're up yet!_

He turned around and walked towards the door. It slid aside for him, but he didn't exit. With creepily slow movements, Roxas cocked his head just enough for me to see the wicked smirk that painted his (handsome) features.

I froze.

"…You need all the help you can get." Those were the words he left me with. The freak. At least now I know what's in store for me:

14 days of hell.

Sighing, I turned towards my morning preparations. I tried to wring my fingers through my hair, but not even my skinny digits could make it through the tangled blonde strands. With everything that had happened as of late, it was safe to say that my hair was one of the last things on my mind.

At my dresser, I picked up a brush and used the large vanity mirror to guide it through. To clear out all the knots, it took a good amount of time-time that Roxas didn't seem to have.

"Ugh, what's taking so long?" he groaned.

I rolled my eyes. "Just give me a minute! I'm not going out like this."

"Out?" he cried. "It's not a fucking date, princess, just put on what Kairi left you and hurry up!"

Finishing up with my head, I glanced at my closet door to get a look at what he was talking about. Hanging from the doorknob was a set of sweats. They were black and white, and wrapped in one of those protective plastic covers you get from the dry cleaners. When I got to them and took them out of the wrap, I found my number, "0", printed on the back. I snorted, _It's almost like we're a sports team._

Suddenly, an annoying, insistent tapping sound started wrapping against the wall from the outside. I had to suppress another groan. When they said Roxas wasn't patient, they sure weren't kidding. _Jeez, he is definitely not making this easy. It's like he's purposely trying to get me to hate him._

Then again, could that be what's he's doing? It was clear enough from the way he tried to stay in the same space as me for as little time as possible and how he never really looked me in the eyes, that he's uncomfortable being around me. _But…why?_

The banging began again, this time harsher and louder than before.

"Oh fine!" I caved. This boy was really too much.

VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI

"What on _earth_ are those for?"

As soon as we got back to the training room (_teleported on my own for the first time; very exciting!_), Roxas had immediately started doing something weird again. Considering how strange my life had turned as of late, I expected the training to be all X-men-like or something of the sort.

Again, nope.

Out of a vanishing doorway in the wall of the sub-room, Roxas had begun pulling some serious pieces of exercise equipment out onto the floor. I had only seen similar contraptions during montages in the few "guy" movies Aladdin had forced me to watch with him. However, those things had been modified into what looked like death machines with ridiculous amounts of weights fixed to them and reinforced build and wiring.

When Roxas pulled out the last piece, he finally took notice of me gawking at all the stuff.

"What now, princess?" he questioned, sounding exasperated.

I sent another glare his way. "All I asked was what is all this for? What happened to the flying disks and robot-thingies?"

"Those _thingies_, as you so smartly put it," I stuck my tongue out at him immaturely. "Yeah, way to prove my point there, but anyway, those were just to test how far along your powers had developed since their abrupt awakening. From those results it became obvious that such training methods were far too advanced for your level of skills, or lack thereof."

I harrumphed and crossed my arms childishly. I hated to give in to his prodding, but he didn't have to be so blunt about how weak I was. "And the exercise equipment?"

"I decided for you it would be best to start with the basics of any type of training." He walked over to one of the pieces of equipment that had a metal bar chained to a bunch of weights, the one when you're on your back, and pointed at it. That same smirk from earlier returned as he slyly set it for 200 pounds, more than twice of what I weighed.

My already pale skin blanched to the point that I could disappear into the walls, like I really wanted to at the moment.

"Y-You're kidding…right?" I was almost too scared to ask.

Roxas's smirk stretched, a shade of sadism seeping in, and his eyes darkened to an inky blue. "Strong body, strong mind, princess."

My gaze locked onto the weightlifting machine. Hey, I did have super powers now; how bad could it be? Finally moving, I sat down on it and laid back. Roxas easily lifted the 200 lbs and held out the bar for me to grab. No sooner had my fingertips touched it, he let go and let me feel the full force of it.

Surprisingly, it wasn't impossible and I was keeping it up, but it was a stretch for me. I jerked it down to my chest, like I imagined was what I was supposed to do, and roughly brought it back up. I repeated the task four more times, making a total of five…reps?, before stopping.

Roxas was just standing there with his arms crossed and watching my slight progress in the same bored fashion as ever. "Just how many times do I have to do this?" I asked him.

"Hm…" He placed a hand to his chin in a mock thinking stance that even _I_ could tell was fake. "Oh…a hundred reps should do for the test run."

"_A hundred?! Test run?!"_

"Ye~p."

_Did I say that out loud? Who cares! I have to do a hundred freakin' lifts of TWO hundred freakin' pounds._

Fuck my life.

VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI

The majority of the members of Organization 13 were currently in the cafeteria having lunch. At one table sat Kairi, Axel, Clover, Sora, and Demyx. Axel was either done eating or not interested in it at the moment because he was heavily transfixed by the flame disappearing on the tip of his pointer finger every time he flicked it.

Kairi was rolling her eyes and eating some pasta, smirking as the other two guys at the table were in the middle of a heated eat off. From the lack of a crowd forming, it was pretty obvious that this was a regular occurrence between the two bottomless pits. The only one jeering them on was the ever faithful Clover, who was also passing in more food whenever they ran out.

Overall, the eating area was in a fairly chill atmosphere.

"Neh, guys?" Kairi said while putting her fork down, "How do you think Naminé's first day of training is going?"

"I don't know; I heard Roxas grumbling to himself early this morning before he stomped off," Axel answered, still playing with fire.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Clover put in. Clarabelle arrived with a plate full of tacos, smiling at her best "customers", and gave it to the young teen. The dark skinned girl then shoved the plate towards the hungry eaters, careful to keep her hands away from their mouths in case of another "incident".

"Roxy is always moody so that probably means he didn't go all psycho-coach on her."

"Yeah, but five o'clock in the morning?!" Axel finally powered down his gift and faced the small girl.

"Yes,so?"

"Hate to break this to you,Tulip,but not everyone eats by way of photosynthesis. Try waking me up before 10 and we'll see what degree burn you'll get. Got it memorized?"

"Aku! Just because I control plants doesn't mean I am one!" Clover flung the next delivered plate of food, earning dirty looks from the now sauce-splattered Sora and Demyx. Sadly for them, she didn't notice.

"That's what you're concerned with…?" Kairi mumbles, thinking more about Axel's threat.

"Could've fooled me; with how hyper you are, I wouldn't be surprised if you got some sort of secret sugar-dealing business going on." He nodded at the other guys. "Those two goofs are probably regulars."

In retaliation, Clover swiped half a sub from the boys' plate and flung it at the redhead. Axel snorted and shot the projectile down with a fireball.

"Did someone mention a Goof-" The flaming sub smacked the randomly appearing Goofy in the face mid-entrance. "Ah! It burns!"

Axel and Clover doubled over in laughter while Goofy desperately performed the "stop, drop, and roll" maneuver.

"Guys!" Kairi tried to scold the two.

"Oh, lay off, Kai," Axel choked out through laughs, "You know that was so-OW!" The tall male held onto his head as a nasty lump formed.

Clarabelle stood over him, waving the frying pan she hit him with. "No setting my fine cuisine ablaze," she yelled at him.

A slightly charred Goofy pulled himself up by the table. "Aw, Clarabelle, what about lil' ol' me?"

The tall woman waved him off. "Oh, you'll be fine." He shrunk at her cruel dismiss.

Clover laughed even harder at both their pain before she ended up in the same boat

"And no flingin' it, neither!"

The chef finally retreated from the table, which had still yet to draw any attention, and the three wounded ones sulked in a dark cloud of depression.

All of a sudden, the double doors were cruelly pushed open. So much force was put on them that they slammed back against the wall and cracked it. That finally grabbed the other occupants' attention and when they all looked at the source of the commotion, they were surprised to see a disheveled and exhausted-looking Naminé leaning against one side of the doorway for support.

"Fo~od," I moaned. Weakly, I wobbled onto my sore feet and shoveled like a zombie over to the nearest table, which happened to be the previously mentioned table with my friends. I slumped in a seat and let my head collapse onto the tabletop.

Kairi, Axel, Sora, Clover, and Demyx sweatdropped at me. Eventually, one of them plucked up the courage to speak.

"Yo, you dead?"

"Axel!" Kairi smacked him upside his head, doubling his lumps.

"OW! Would you chicks quit hitting me; at least I asked."

"I was going to."

"Me, too!" Clover chimed in.

"Nobody asked you, small fry," Axel told her, irritated by the pain in his head.

A heated argument erupted between the three after that (one that Kairi almost immediately dropped out of), but I was too physically drained to pay any attention to them. In fact, I hadn't even noticed I wasn't around. The only thing that penetrated my fog of fatigue was a tantalizing aroma seducing my nostrils.

With his girlfriend through mediating things, Sora took his turn to calm down the two next to him, inadvertently forfeiting the eating competition to Demyx. The dirty blond began cheering at his (false) victory, but abruptly halted when his victory pizza floated up before his shocked gaze.

"AH! Demon pizza!" Demyx screamed and dived for cover. "It wants revenge for its fallen friends!" came from underneath the table.

The feud stopped as the contributors watched the "demon pizza" fly into the reach of my outstretched hand. The cheesy, saucy goodness vanished down my throat even faster than Sora and Demyx could manage. When I was done, my hand shot back out and Xion's Mountain Dew darted to my grasp.

"Hey!" the raven screeched from across the room, but I had already drained her can and crushed it against my forehead like some jock. To rub even more salt in the wound, I chucked it at her approaching form, scoring right between her eyes.

Xion's shadow flared dangerously, but instead of me, it went and lashed out at Axel who had cracked up at her misfortune.

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!"

Kairi came and sat down next to me, patting my back as the consequences of my rash eating took affect. "What happened to you?"

In answer, my other arm shot out and shakily pointed at the door. Sure enough, standing in the doorway was the cause of all my pain. Whistling (_WHISTLING!_),  
Roxas sauntered into the room over to Xion and Axel.

A collective sigh came from her friends. Really, what was Mickey thinking?

VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI

The rest of the day was just as horrid and painful as the beginning. And so was the day after that and the day after that! Roxas had no problem working me to the bone, whether I was a thin, little "princess", as he called me, or not. To make matters even worse, after the first day he got it into his crazy head that breakfast was a bad idea. I mean, sure I _may_ have made a mess of his cloak before lunch, but he couldn't blame anyone but himself for that! He thankfully left lunch alone, but in return, the time I would eat dinner all depended on how quickly I could complete that days' planned workout.

Said workout was basically a training sequence straight from the movie of Hell. I swore I could hear "Eye of the Tiger", "She's a Maniac", and the like playing throughout the whole torture process.

The weights were only the beginning of it, too: Roxas had me run several laps around all of The World That Never Was, jump rope at a 150 jumps per a minute, scale the highly unstable sides of the ruined church, do push-ups while he stood on my back holding a giant _boulder_, and so much worse. The maniac even enlisted Vanitas to serve as a meat sack for me. I had to try to punch his tentacles, but the majority of the time I ended up bitch slapped like I've never been bitch slapped before.

By the fourth day, I was really starting to dread my life and I really didn't think I could handle anymore. Although I hated to admit it, I had noticed an increase in my muscle mass. Though the work was brutal, I couldn't say it wasn't whipping me into some serious shape and quickly, too.

I teleported into the sub-room and immediately slumped back against the wall behind me. I didn't know what was in store for me yet, but if it was anything like the previous days, then it was bound to be awful.

"So what are we doing today?" I asked with my eyes closed. "More phys ed? Or maybe you'll have me wrestle a bear, hm?"

"Where would I get a bear, princess?" I heard him say.

I shrugged. "Louie's an animal shapeshifter. Or is it Huey?...Dewey...?" I still didn't know who was who among them and I certainly hadn't had the time to find out. They seemed to be color coded, but that didn't help if you didn't know what the colors corresponded to in the first place.

"True, but I don't like children. And no one likes _those_ children."

"Roxas!"

My eyes popped open at the entrance of a third voice. Finally looking at the home of my personal Hell, I found an odd fallen angel in the form of Kairi. "What's she doing here?"

The redhead answered, "I'm here to help with your next phase of training."

I raised a brow at Roxas. "So no more brutal workouts?"

He snorted and crossed his arms, scowling. "They weren't brutal…but no, it's time to get to the 'strong mind' half of what I said earlier. That means your work is done here, Demyx."

Said dirty blond looked up from one corner of the room, sitar in arms. He shrugged, "Thanks for the gig," and teleported out.

_I knew I heard music._

"Kairi and you are about the same size," Roxas continued, "The reason I had you work on your weightlifting first is because you need to be able to do the same thing, but with your blessing and on yourself." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll start with Kairi."

_Levitate Kairi?_ Well, I guess now that I think about it, his methods do make sense (not that I would admit that).

"Not so brutal now, huh?"

"Shut it," I grumbled, face burning in shame and embarrassment, "I need to focus."

The blond raised his hands in mock surrender and he stepped out of the way. I took a calming breath and felt the now familiar tingling crawl through my veins. My eyes flashed and I more sensed than felt a thrumming in my rising hands. A faint blue outline appeared around Kairi and slowly but surely, she lifted to a hovering above the floor.

"Higher," Roxas barked.

I put more into it and was shocked but pleased to find that I could raise her higher without getting a headache like I did before. _Well, I'll be a monkey's unc-aunt. It actually worked._

Kairi seemed just as happy at my progress as I was. She beamed her pearly white smile and flapped her arms about like a kid. "Whee!" Suddenly, the glow wavered and she dropped a couple feet before leveling. "Whoa."

"Sorry," I apologized. Her movement created a change in the target of my blessing, causing it to shortly falter, but I had it now. I think.

Gently moving my arms, I brought Kairi back up and flew her through the air. Kairi started laughing and I joined in. I was so proud of myself. Eventually, I brought her back down and I couldn't stop myself from running over to Roxas.

"I did it, did you see? I did it!" I squealed.

"Of course I saw. I was standing here the whole time, Naminé."

"I know, I know, just…" I paused before smiling softly. "Thank you, Roxas."

Something shifted in his eyes; they lightened and at that moment I knew I was seeing the boy of my dreams…Then he was gone, shrouded by darkness once more. Roxas looked away from me and I couldn't help but feel hurt once more. He waved me off. "T'was nothin'; you're the one that went through my training."

"But it was _your_ training-"

"And it's not done!" He shouted. He saw me flinch and sighed, pulling at his golden spikes. Before another wave of sadness could wash over me, he gave me the same, old smirk. "Now I want you to do it with one hand."

That's how the rest of my training went that day. We used more than just Kairi as test dummies (a title the teenaged girl was not fond of being called by the blond boy), but I never got the one handed down. I did, however, manage to keep my focus on my target no matter if it changed position. The rest of that week we worked on using my blessing on myself and I at least got myself hovering across the floors and partly up the walls. It was surprisingly a lot harder to reverse my blessing onto myself.

I would've been happy to keep working on it, but Roxas had different plans for our second week of training. I guess our little "agreement" would last beyond this first mission if I truly wanted to master my blessing.

Yuffie helped us out with espionage and the art of thievery during the second half. I thought she was just being silly (or crazy) when she called herself a ninja, but the girl had the skills to back it up. She worked me on gymnastics and simple acrobatics for the first couple of days and Roxas helped us with obstacle courses. My reflexes were slug-speed compared to theirs and I got pretty banged up throughout the course.

"You're not on edge enough," Roxas said. "Always be prepared."

"Chill, boy scout," Yuffie chided him. "We ain't all as paranoid as you are." He growled.

There wasn't much they could do about my foresight in what little time we had and we were forced to move on, Yuffie saying Roxas would just have to watch my back. Our final days before the mission focused on the stealing aspect of our job. Roxas knew his stuff about picking locks and taught me the basic hairpin trick (not that he would use it considering he doesn't where hairpins). He would handle any heavier duty locks and the main point of this was to teach me how to be aware of booby traps and other security measures.

When our two weeks were up, I had a terrible feeling that I wasn't ready.

VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI

I decided to walk to the Dock instead of teleporting on the day of the mission. I needed time to think things over.

My assigned outfit was all black, greatly contrasting to what I usually wore. It made me look all washed out and paler than normal, but even I could figure that it would be perfect for our job. Black skinny jeans hugged my legs and a tight, long-sleeved black shirt slid easily into my thick Organization cloak.

Knots twisted in my gut as the door to the Dock appeared before me. I was bout to enter, but a grip on my shoulders stopped me. Turning around, I found the comforting faces of Kairi and Sora.

"Good luck," Kairi said, "but you don't need," She gave my shoulders a squeeze before letting go. "Oh, and be careful!"

"Hey," Sora said. I hadn't ever had a direct conversation with him before. "Just relax. You might not know it or believe it, but Roxas wouldn't ever let something bad happen to you." He gave me his signature grin. "He's better than he seems."

I smiled back at him. "I know." We arrived at the entrance and I bid them ado. "Later, guys." Inside the Dock, the same group as before was there minus everyone's favorite ninja.

"Where's Yuffie?"

"Already working on our next mission," Mickey answered a bit cryptically. "Numbers VI, I, begin."

Zexion nodded his hooded head and Vanitas plugged himself into the teleporter. I noticed they all had their hoods up and quickly pulled on my own. Looking into the glass machine I could see that my identity was completely masked. Roxas pulled me inside the teleporter and we turned to face our leader.

"You two know your mission, do not stray from it. I do not expect you to return until it is accomplished, but remain safe. Don't do anything risky." I thought he meant the last part towards Roxas, but I couldn't be sure without seeing his eyes. Vanitas's tentacles lit up like computer circuitry, a flash of red light going into the teleporter and manipulating it. Before I could observe anymore, we were gone.

VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI VI

I was back in the darkness and startled, I reached out for Roxas's sleeve. When it cleared, we were in a dark neighborhood.

Roxas noticed my grip and shook me loose roughly, like my touch burned. "Come on, the mission just started. Don't get scared already," he whispered too low for normal human ears to hear. He vanished again and I pictured what I assumed was the place to go, the Church of Yevon.

I ended up in the tree Yuffie was previously perched in and spotted Roxas down on the ground. No one but a Nobody would spot him in the Organization cloak. Activating my blessing, I floated down next to him, not making a sound. He signaled for me to go the other way around.

Nodding, I levitated myself to a hover and made my way around the building. It was less shabby in real life and definitely couldn't compare to the damage of the church back home. _Home?...When did it become that?_ But it was true. I shook off the thoughts, _Got to stay focused. _My nerve was deserting me during the real thing-I mean, this was illegal: breaking and entering, stealing-but I wasn't about to let everyone down, not after all the work Roxas put into my training.

Eventually, I found myself underneath the farthest back window of the building. I raised myself as little as possible to see over the edge and pinpointed the target. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked up and appeared just like the projection, a box wrapped in velvet on a pedestal.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the dark form of Roxas slinking across the room. He darted from one hiding place to another, working his way towards the target and simultaneously checking for traps.

_Hm, maybe I won't be needed at all. Damn, all that training for-_Roxas halted in his movements, peeking my interest. Out of nowhere, he gave up on being sneaky and leapt into the center of the church. _What is he-?_

"Ah, so not all of you are fools." I was stunned still as another figure stepped out from a secret hiding spot in one of the pillars. He stepped towards Roxas, who growled at him, clapping sarcastically. "At least one of you heretics knows the value of our sacred treasure."

Roxas didn't bother with any civil tactics and immediately pounced on the man, foricing him into the moonlight. It was Seymour Guado.

Seymour laughed at Roxas and shoved him off-_wait, WHAT?!_ "Surprised?" He asked, knowing full well the answer. "You think you are the only ones to know divine power?!" He knelt down to sneer into Roxas's face. "I've been _warned_ about you." _Warned?_ I thought, _I have to make sure to report this to Mickey_.

Roxas let loose another growl and a dark flash lashed out at Seymour, catching the man under the eye before he could leap away.

"So that's your little trick, hm?" Seymour pondered,wiping at the blood going down his cheek. He looked at Roxas, still confident as the teen lashed his scythe tail around angrily. "Well then, have at it, _monster!_" Roxas flinched at the name, but complied nonetheless, full out snarling. The Guado leader pulled out a intricately-designed staff from his robes and deflected Roxas's tail, a transparent sphere of white energy appearing for a second, telling of some kind of force field.

The teenaged boy continued attacking in a furious manner, but the blue-haired man kept blocking with the same white shield. He spun his staff in fanciful ways, rubbing it into his enemy's face just how easy it was to defend against him.

Roxas got seriously pissed and jumped away from the man, literally shaking with rage. His nails dug at the ground with sharpened nails as his hands began to shake more furiously. I watched transfixed by the gruesome sight as his flesh stretched to the point of tearing. His dark crimson muscles elongated and his remaining nails sharpened to wicked points, the color shifting to the same glossy black as the scythe of his tail. My horrified azure orbs caught a glimpse of his now blood red ones under his hood before he reinitiated the battle.

"_Dis_gusting," the man spat and pointed his staff at the approaching creature. Black energy gathered at its tip, forming a sphere, and rapidly expanded before blasting in the form of an attack. My hands flew to my mouth,silently gasping,as the blast collided with Roxas and sent him through the front wall.

I couldn't breath,sweat dripping down my temple,until a claw appeared through the cloud of dust. His fingers twitched and it took me a minute to realize he was signaling to me.

He suddenly flew through the hole in the wall back into the heat of battle and I snapped out of it. Pulling myself through the empty frame of the window, I slithered along the shadowed areas of the walls and floor to the target. I made sure to keep well out of the moonlight and checked on the battle quickly-Seymour was off the defensive and sending more black orbs at Roxas, but I knew from the training how flexible the boy was. He easily evaded the attacks now and often clashed his tail or claws with the man's staff.

Turning back to the mission, I roved over the pedestal with my eyes, checking for the telltale signs of tinkering, but found nothing. So standing up in the shadows, I carefully picked up the box.

Both Roxas and Seymour smirked.

I cringed. _Something's wrong._ All of a sudden, the contents of the box begin to glow, bright blue light penetrating the dark fabric covering.

"0!" Roxas shouted, no longer concerned about keeping my presence a secret.

My body wouldn't obey. Somehow, I was frozen so there wasn't a thing I could do as the box began to violently shake. I could feel something ciphering my own power, like it was hacking my blessing. A soft trail of blue energy started worming into the object in my hands.

"Wha-"

It exploded. My own energy was shot back at me at a much higher intensity than I could ever manage with my minimal training. I was flung away from the target and sent flying towards the duel. Seymour's smirk twisted into a manic smile as he turned away from Roxas and pointed the sharp end at my speedily approaching body.

Time seemed to slow around me as my death seemed imminent. _This can't really be it, can it?_ But no one and nothing answered me. Tears pricked my eyes. _Roxas…_ And then it happened.

The sound of metal piercing through flesh echoed around the church…but I felt nothing.

Dread released my senses and I became all too aware of what had happened, my skin blanching and my throat drying. My head, freed of my hood, crept slowly around.

Those mesmerizing blue eyes bore down into my own mortified ones. One of Roxas's claws lifted to clear my face of my mussed hair. "You were supposed to be careful," he whispered tenderly, accidentally coughing blood onto my face. My eyes widened even further.

Seymour's staff was stabbed straight through Roxas.

Blue blood dripped profusely from his wound and pooled around our boots. I quivered with emotion-what? I'm not sure: horror? Pain? Fear? Anguish?

The man cackled evilly, "Ha! Even better; get the beast out of the way and the princess is a synch!"

Roxas growled, his eyes instantly returning to red. Roxas's tail whipped up and ensnared the enemy's staff. The bluenette tugged futilely for his weapon, but Roxas was not giving in. With a flick, Seymour howled in pain and caused himself to fall backwards from his dismembered hand. The weapon and hand, still tightly gripping the handle, were flung across the room.

The boy attacked the man clenching at the bleeding stump at the end of his right arm. Unable to be on the offensive anymore, the Guado leader brought back up his force field, but the combined influence of his injury and Roxas's newfound fury were able to crack his shield until finally his defense broke. Both he and Roxas crashed through the door, bringing it down with them as they tumbled outside the church.

My acute hearing picked up the sound of sirens quickly approaching. The noise brought me out of my daze and I started after them. There was a tugging in my brain and I turned back to find the target still glowing. I went back and retrieved it before I followed after the duel, pulling my hood back up.

When I got outside though, the battle was already decided. I arrived in time to see Roxas deliver a fatal blow into the man's heart, making me flinch at the grisly scene. Seymour's body twitched violently and unexpectedly turned to black smoke, leaving only his robes behind.

Roxas had just enough time to jump back before police cruisers swerved onto the property. I shielded my eyes from the intense spotlight put on me.

"Freeze!"

My eyes shot to Roxas in a panic, but he was gone. _Why that little-Damn it all!_ Getting a clue, I teleported out of there, leaving behind a very surprised Chief Auron and Deputy Kimahri.

The chief muttered, "What the hell…"

**HAPPY BELATED CHRISTMAS/HANAKUAH/KWANZA AND NEW YEAR'S! Oh my god, I didn't think I'd ever get through this, but-there's the first mission. All our appliances seemed to have committed suicide before the "apocalypse" including my beloved laptop so that's why it was so late; I have to share now :P Hopefully, it won't take so long next time! R&R**

**Anonymous Review Reponses:**

**Katherine:** Here you go! :)

**kk0:** Yes! Finally some critiquing becuase I know I'm not perfect

-The rant? Yeah, it could've benn shorter, but I needed it to show a litt more insight on Naminé's personality and an intro to the dream.

-Oh, is it not allowed? I've seen it in other stories and just went with it. I thought the song totally fit, but maybe that's just me.

-It makes me laugh reading back over it, but sadly I don't think I can change it.

-Actually, I thought about their last name a lot and this was the best I got. It was almost "Sanders", but can you picture that? Really? Plus it helps to identify the characters!

-Yeah, any sympathy was completely unintentional; he's a douche. I apologize if his chara is out of whack, but b/t you and me (and anyone who bothers to go back and read your review), this won't be the last we see of him so hopefully I'll do better with his personality next appearance.


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